Road Not Taken
by Monkey D. Toushiro
Summary: What if Sena had stood up for himself as a child? What if Sena was strong? Featuring Sena with a backbone. HiruSena.
1. Chapter 1: A Road Paved

Edit (more like rewrite): 10-28-13

* * *

Sena, Age 8

A little boy, clad in a green-white striped T-shirt and black shorts, was kneeling on the ground in the middle of a park. He had remarkably spiky brown hair that defied the rules of gravity. His eyes were shut tightly as he held his hands above his head. His bottom lip trembled slightly in fear as he clenched his teeth tightly together.

Today had been an extra bad day for him. Rather, it must have for his tormenters, because they were currently venting their anger at him with extra vigor. His locker had been trashed with pins—normally they just put wet tissues in his shoes; they made him buy extra lunch at the line, and now they were kicking sand at him while laughing. Had this poor brunette been a tad bit brighter, he would have thought to stand up to avoid the sand particles getting at his face. Unfortunately, the boy was at the end of his rope, having gone through a particularly exhausting day, which actually meant something, considering the ill-fated days he lived through regularly. He simply was too _tired_ of everything to think clearly.

Long ago, he had already resigned to his fate of being the victim and the gopher. Because of this, he had always been isolated, avoided, and _alone. _No one wanted to be associated with the pushover, not with the threat of being a victim themselves hanging in the air. His only salvation was Mamori and Riku, and the latter had moved away two or three years ago already. Oh, how he wished he had as much courage as them…

Sena took the abuse all in silence, simply waiting for them to get bored of their game, as he did everyday. Eventually, the ringleader stopped and stood before him with his arms crossed. Soon enough, his posse noticed and stepped back next to the lead bully, imitating their leader's pose. The bully sported a scowl on his face as he kicked up the sand at Sena before he walked out of the park with his little group trailing along. The elementary bully shouted behind him as he left, "You're no fun!"

The dirty and beat up boy released a long and resigned sigh, standing up and pausing to brush the sand he could off of him. He then trudged out of the park with a bag that was in about the same condition as he was. He was glad he met no one on his way home, or else they would have thought he was some kind of homeless orphan, considering his clothes weren't exactly looking clean.

Sena stepped in his house, took off his shoes, and muttered quietly, "I'm home."

Obviously no one was home though. Sena didn't have any siblings and his parents didn't come home from work until around six so everyday he arrived home with deathly silence welcoming him. He was glad for that, actually. He didn't want his parents to see him coming home in this state. Sena always took the liberty to wash himself up before his parents came home.

Even then, he knew that his parents were somewhat aware of his position at school. Every single morning and evening, he was forced to endure their smothering, pitying, concern for him. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate their concern; he simply hated seeing his parents' sadness in their eyes. Hated to see that it was his fault for making them feel this way. Hated that he couldn't do anything about it.

Hated to be so _weak._

* * *

"Stop right there, loser."

Sena felt a sinking sensation in his heart as he slowly turned around. He had been hoping he could go home without an incident after his crummy day at school, but he was already expecting something like this to happen. The lead bully slapped him hard on the back with a loud laugh. "Don't give me that look. We're friends, right?"

The short brunette debated in his mind whether to resist or just go along with him. He knew either way would get himself hurt, but at least he could choose the easier one. Sena mustered a smile and plastered it on his face. "Haha, yeah."

He felt like crying inside. It disgusted himself to suck up to his tormenters. _But this way would hurt less._

The taller boy grinned at him, patting his head. "Good, good. Then come on over to my house then!"

Sena blinked at him in surprise. That was a first. He looked down at his shoes. He had a _really _bad feeling about this. "Um, my mom told me to come home early today." He stepped back, turning back towards home.

"Who said you could leave?"

Sena's bottom lip quivered fearfully. He attempted to ignore the bully, taking another step forward. But before he could get any farther, the other boy grabbed his arm and forcefully yanked him back. He hissed in Sena's ear, "You're coming to my house right now, _friend_."

"Hey! You!" A voice in the distance called out. "Get away from Sena!"

Sena turned around, tears of relief filling his eyes as he watched Mamori draw closer. "Mamori-neechan!"

The boy holding onto Sena immediately let go and began walking away. He muttered, "Stupid girl."

Mamori ran between those two with her arms splayed out defensively in front of Sena. "Don't bully Sena! Stay away from him!" She shouted at the retreating boy. The pinkette took his hand gently as she led him home. Looking down at him in concern, she asked, "Are you okay, Sena?"

Sena turned away, unable to look at Mamori in the eye. He bit his lip anxiously as they continued their way down the street. The brunette did not answer her but gripped her hand tighter.

This hand. He would protect it.

Right now, she was protecting him, but one day, _he_ would protect _her_. They separated ways when they arrived at their respective houses. Waving good-bye to her, Sena quickly turned around and stepped into his house. A pronounced frown appeared on his face as he had a much more realistic thought.

Could he protect _himself_?

He knew the answer.

* * *

Sena was slumped in his chair, his head tiled up at the ceiling in thought. His wore a face of hard concentration, thinking of the same things he had been pondering upon for the thousandth time this week.

Riku taught him well on how to run away, but to fight back? He had promised his friend he would protect Mamori. How was he to do it with running away?

But Mamori was the one who protected him.

He was the one who needed to be protected.

But he didn't have to be strong, right? All he needed to do is run away from the bullies. Then Mamori wouldn't have to go through the trouble of defending him.

It's not like the life of a bully victim was that bad, especially with Mamori by his side.

But he promised Riku he would protect her…

It was an endless, vicious cycle.

* * *

The following morning, Sena and Mamori walked to Deimon Elementary together in comfortable silence. After Mamori gave her concerned-parent-but-not-a-parent speech to Sena, which consisted something along the lines of, "Don't try to stand out in a bad way. Make sure you finish your lunch and drink lots of water…" Sena took it all in with a smile and a nod.

The day went by quickly, and soon, Sena was reaching into his backpack for his lunch. He looked around the classroom for his daily tormenters. His jaw dropped to see them getting out of the classroom together with money in their hands. They were getting their own lunch…on their own…? Sena shook his head vigorously. He wasn't about to remind him of his job as a gopher for them. If they were going to finally get their own lunches, then good for them.

The brunette scratched his head nervously. This was too strange. They would never leave him alone like this…

He nearly dropped his bento in fright. They must've done something to his lunch then. He stared at his lunch for a long second. Sena felt as though his hands were being poisoned just by holding it. With a strong sense of foreboding, he slowly opened his bento.

What…?

There was nothing wrong with it. His rice, chicken, vegetables were all untouched. He blinked as he held his cap of the bento in the air. Sena closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. He was just being paranoid.

* * *

_For a good reason,_ Sena thought dryly as he found a note that practically shouted: 'SCHEME SCHEME PLOT PLOT' in his locker afterschool. Unraveling the folded up note, it was a quick message in a messy scrawl:

loser:

if you want that girl, you better come to the back of the school now!

Sena could feel the blood rush out of his face. His heart was poured in white cold water, yet it beat so hard and fast. He unknowingly dropped his school bag on the floor, causing a few other kids to glance his way before turning away. His hands and feet suddenly felt clammy and frozen.

After a second to gather his bearings, he launched into a sprint, schooling a furious expression on his face. Running out of the building, Sena didn't miss a beat and continued at his fast pace to the back of the school building. His fists were clenched so hard, his knuckles turned white, and his gums hurt from gritting his teeth so hard from anger.

The moment he turned the corner, he skidded to a quick stop and his previously clasped fists opened in shock. The now crumpled paper fell to the ground.

Forget about how he was feeling a second before. It was _nothing _compared to this. This feeling Sena could not identify. The closest word would be "livid," or "enraged" but neither was enough to express it.

He was past angry.

Past furious.

Past enraged.

Past livid.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Sena roared ferociously, shooting forward and tackling the larger boy who had his hand raised to slap the girl who was huddled on the ground.

There was another boy who stood behind them with his arms crossed, smirking. "What does it look like? No need to get all riled up now, _Kobayakawa Sena._"

Sena was too infuriated to form coherent words and snarled at the boys in rabid fury. He positioned himself in front of Mamori, who had her head ducked into her arms—shoulders shaking occasionally—and held his arms out protectively. The brunette was panting heavily, not from the exertion of just sprinting all the way here, but from his explosive anger that he was attempting to reign in.

"Well anyway, it's good you found this place, huh." The older boy looked down at him with a superior gleam in his eyes. "My little brother has told me _all_ about you two." His face transformed into a cruel sneer as he continued, "And it seems you need some punishment."

It was then that Sena noticed his usual tormenter was there, behind everything, standing in the back wearing a dumb grin. The boy raised a fist and shouted out, "Yeah, you go show him, brother!"

"Shut up, you mutt." The older brother bit out icily. "Be thankful I'm doing this for you. All I ask is you to keep your frickin' mouth _shut!_"

Sena could understand why the boy would feel the need to vent his negative feelings somewhere. The brunette seethed as he thought, _That doesn't mean he should vent it on Mamori!_

The older boy's attention returned to Sena as he let out a small chuckle. "So, Sena. Which will it be? You or the girl?"

Sena glared at him murderously, moving directly in front of Mamori to block anything that would come at her. "Don't you _dare_ touch her!" He snarled out.

The brother raised his eyebrows and put his hands up in superficial fear. "Whoa, whoa. Sca~ary." The other two boys there hooted with laughter at his antics. The brother basked in the attention and smirked. "So I'm guessing you choose yourself. C'mon boys, let's get him!"

They cheered and grinned as they closed in on Sena. The brunette glanced at the cowering Mamori one last time before he thrown on the ground. _As long she's not hurt…_

And he then resigned to his fate.

* * *

Sena lay on the ground, admiring the beautiful deep blue sky. "It would be nice to be like the sky." Sena whispered out offhandedly.

Above everything, everybody. Unaffected by anything, anyone.

Untouchable.

Breaking out of his stupor, he sat up with a grimace of pain showing clearly on his face. Sena turned to look at Mamori, who lay on the ground next to him, sound asleep. He shook her shoulders, trying to wake her from her slumber. After the bullies had gotten bored of the 'Let's-beat-Sena-up' game, they left with a last kick on his back. Sena opened his shell he had curled himself into as they began their beating. He did a quick examination of himself and Mamori. Sena knew he was in pretty bad condition, but he was glad that Mamori only got a bruise on her face and nothing else.

"Mamori-neechan, wake up."

"S-Sena?" Her voice cracked as she opened her eyes.

Sena stood up, wincing the whole time, and then extended a hand out for his childhood friend. He managed a smile and said softly, "C'mon, let's go home now."

She sat up and grabbed his hand with a smile. "Alright."

They walked home in companionable silence, with Sena leaning heavily on Mamori. He was tense and panting in pain by the time they arrived home. He untangled himself from Mamori's support when they walked up Sena's front door. He looked down ashamedly. "I-I'm sorry, neechan. It was my fault you got hurt."

Sena retreated into his house, and slowly closed the door on her, depressed. Mamori had a genuinely shocked face that the brunette did not catch. "Sena!" The pinkette did not receive an answer. "It's not your fault." She started. "If anything…" She hesitated, looking at the ground in distress. "If anything, it's my fault. I said I'd protect you…b-but I don't know. You ended up protecting me…I'm sorry."

Mamori's head snapped up when she heard Sena's solemn voice through the door. "Don't say that." She heard him take a deep breath. "That's the only thing that went right. That _I _protected _you_."

* * *

The next few days were a blur for Sena. He stayed home for a few days after the incident, being too injured to go to school. None of the wounds were serious enough to send him to the hospital. He just had a _lot_ of not-so-serious injuries. Today was the last day of recovering—he had shed most of his bandages, only the more serious wounds were covered still. Mamori visited Sena every single day. The brunette was glad she never brought up the topic after that day. They chatted about casual things that kept the atmosphere relaxed.

But the things Sena could not put his heart into their conversations. He was still in turmoil at his weakness. Even if they never mentioned it, he thought about it countless times everyday. His helplessness for himself _and _Mamori.

This was no longer something that he put himself into an infinite circle of thought anymore. He knew he had to do something about it. His mouth twisted into a hard line. Sena could take everything they gave him, but if they started aiming for Mamori, he would not take it.

Sena sat in the kitchen table with his dad, who was immersed in the news paper as he was everyday. His eyes followed his mom's back moving around in the kitchen absently. His mind flashed to the incident, his resolve strengthening. He _would_ get stronger. For sure. Even if it killed him.

"Hey, Mom, Dad. I want to take karate lessons."

* * *

**Merrrp. This was so hard to rewrite .**

**But it's waay better than the first version...for sure. :D**

**Hope you guys liked my new first chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting Agon

Sena's mom turned around from the stove where she was cooking tonight's dinner. Sena's dad looked up from his newspaper he had his face buried in. The couple glanced at each other and both gave a slight nod.

Mihae Kobayakawa faced Sena, who stood before them, looking solemn with is clenched fists resting by his sides. She smiled sadly at him and said, "Of course, dear."

* * *

Five years later

Sena stepped out of the door early in the morning, just as the sky had just broken through its dark shell of night and into dawn, coloring the sky a mild pink. The air was quiet, and even the birds had not awakened to sing their merry tunes they did every morning. He wore a green jersey and sweat pants that was school provided—he was quite fond of them, after using them for a while—and had a white towel hung around his neck. Sena broke into an easy jog, with every breath coming out as a wisp of cold smoke from the chilly temperature.

Sena jogged along side of the creek as he did every morning at the crack of dawn. He smiled widely, enjoying the sensation of wind blowing against his hair, the feeling of his arms and legs moving together, the empty streets, his echoing footsteps that resounded every time his foot met the ground, everything.

During the past five years, Sena had been vigorously training every single day, both mind and body. He had a black belt in karate and could easily beat over a good of half of other black belts in the dojo where he trained. After a few weeks of taking his karate class, he easily fended off the violent bullies and they had never disturbed him ever again. That was when his life made a turn for the better. He became more confident, and people in his school weren't afraid to be friends with him since the threat of the bullies weren't hanging over him anymore. He began the habit of jogging in the morning every day before school three years ago, and hadn't stopped since. Running was such a calming remedy for everything. Whenever he was feeling down, he changed into the appropriate wear and left the house for a run. Sena also consulted his karate trainer a few years back, who suggested he go on a healthy diet. Because of it, and the intense training he went through, he had grown tall enough to be considered a little taller than an average thirteen year old boy.

Sena turned into another street to begin jogging back when he bodily slammed into something hard. Sena yelped in surprise when he was recoiled back onto the ground and fell on his bum. He looked up to see a tall, tan skinned boy with dark purple frizzy curled locks hanging down passed his shoulder with shades covering his eyes staring down at him. He was wearing a baggy yellow jacket with dark purple sleeves and oversized combat green pants that dragged on the ground a bit. He had a dark scowl on his face with his teeth clenched tightly. Sena stood up cautiously, brushed himself off, bowed slightly and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." Then he continued his jog and brushed passed the other boy.

He barely took one step passed the dark skinned boy before he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Sena turned around to see the tall boy glowering at him. "Who said you could go?"

Sena shrugged off the boy's arm unsuccessfully, as the grip on his shoulder tightened when he did so. He replied, "If you want another apology, I can give you another." Sena sighed and continued, "I'm so very sincerely sorry for bumping into you. It was entirely my fault. I will be doubly careful when I'm turning in a blind corner. Do I have your permission to leave now?"

The seemingly short-tempered boy's faced darkened as he put his other hand on Sena's shoulder. He tilted his head back, about to execute a headbutt onto the spiky haired boy, when Sena preformed a clean, quick and powerful kick onto the opposing boy's stomach and immediately jumped back. The kick caused the boy to bow over, with both hands holding onto his stomach. Sena tilted his head to the side in confusion when the boy's shoulders began shaking in laughter, hearing short, dark chuckles coming from the boy.

The chuckles transformed into full-blown laughter as the purple-locked boy stood upright again. Sena's brow furrowed in slight annoyance. What was so funny? He waited for the near-hysterical boy's laughter to die down. "You're interesting." The boy's voice cracked a bit from the after math of his long laughing session.

"So are you."

"What's your name? I'm Agon."

"Sena. Kobayakawa Sena."

The chuckles began again, as Agon pulled his fist back and shouted, "You should be an interesting fight!"

Sena's eyes sharpened as he saw the incoming fist and swiftly dodged it with the slight movement of his head. "Are you still angry over me bumping into you? Can't you just let me go already? I don't want to arrive home late and be late for school."

Agon did not seem to hear Sena, as he smiled wide enough for his entire row of teeth to show and sent a flurry of fists at his face. The agile boy simply ducked below all of the punches and sweep kicked Agon's legs. This unfortunately proved to be useless, as his legs did not budge a single inch from the impact of Sena's kick. Sena frowned as he quickly back-flipped away from the boy. He wasn't sure before, whether the strange boy had doubled over from his kick or his own laughter. But he could tell now, that this Agon character was dangerous. Throughout the five years of his training, he worked on his legs the most. His punching power was decent, but his main facet of power resided in his legs. And these legs just kicked Agon without affecting him at all. If Sena was hit by even one of those punches, he was done for.

Sweat beaded down the side of his face as he faced Agon. He was definitely going to be late for school if he didn't hurry up and finish this. Agon advanced towards Sena with a punch at an alarming speed. Against better judgment, Sena sped towards the powerful boy. Agon's fist slowed down a fraction of a second from surprise at the aspect of his victim running _towards _him. A fraction of a second. That was all Sena needed. He suddenly boosted forward in a burst of speed and instinctively did a spin-twist as he sprinted past Agon. Sena ran without stopping or turning back. He didn't stop until he arrived at his front door. He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He didn't want to meet Agon ever again. He recognized the name now: Kongo Agon. A friend from karate class had mentioned a boy who was in third year middle school prowling around the streets and beating people way older than him up.

Sena looked up when he heard the door open. "Sena? Are you okay? What happened?" It was his mother, who had on an apron and a spatula in one hand.

Sena sighed and shook his head, "Nothing happened. I just decided to run a bit longer today."

Mihae looked at her son and smiled, "Oh, don't push yourself too much, now. I cooked eggs and miso for breakfast today. C'mon inside."

She led Sena by the shoulder into the dining table and seated him. "Mom," Sena complained, "you don't have to treat me like it's my first time in the house. I can walk to the kitchen and sit in a chair by myself." He hugged her and said warmly, "Thanks for your concern, though."

His mother looked down at him, smiling, as she put his breakfast in front of him. "You're welcome, Sena."

After finishing his breakfast and taking a quick shower, he packed his school bag and set off for school. "Well, I'm off to school now!" Sena called into the house.

"Have a good one, son!" His father called out to him from the kitchen. Sena smiled as he closed the door behind him. He could bet his entire piggy bank that his dad was seated at the table with a sugarless cup of coffee, reading today's news.

"Hey, Sena!" A voice came from behind. Sena turned around to see Mamori walking out of her house, waving at him.

Sena gave a bright smile at her and replied, "Hi, Mamori-neechan. We caught each other at the right time, let's go to school!"

As they walked to Deimon Middle School, Sena asked her, "What high school do you plan on going to?"

Mamori put a finger on her chin as she thought. "Well, I was thinking of trying out for Oujo. But I might just go to Deimon High. It's closer anyway. Plus the academics there are still pretty good."

"I see. Which do you think I should go to?" Sena asked.

"Come to Deimon with me! That way I can help you with the bullies." Sena smiled a bit, and didn't say anything in response, as he knew Mamori-neechan still thought he had trouble with the bullies, when he actually could probably beat anyone in his school if he wanted to.

"More importantly, what club are you going to join, Sena?" Mamori asked. "Don't join the rough sport clubs that'll just get you hurt. You can join the embroidery club or something of the sort!" She beamed at him.

"Haha…I'll think about it." Sena scratched his cheek tentatively with a small smile. He looked up at the sky and thought, _A club huh…_

* * *

Sena was walking home slowly from school, enjoying the wind that flew against his face. He suddenly stiffened and spun around. "I knew it…it's you again."The spiky-haired boy scowled under the pretence of annoyance when he was actually itching to squeal and run away with his tail tucked behind his legs.

"I found you~" The voice lilted dangerously, "Kobayakawa Sena-kuuuun. I've been looking for you all day…" His voice trailed off softly. Kongo Agon stood before him with a teethy smile.

Sena, poker-faced, asked, "Is there something you need?"

Agon shook his head, chuckling. "No, no, nothing at all." He suddenly launched forward pulling his arm back for a punch. "Just wanted to play a bit was all!" Sena clicked his teeth in annoyance-that-was-completely-to-disguise-that-he- wanted-to-shit-his-pants-from-fear-right-this-mome nt, and easily avoided the blow. He knew as long he was at the tip of his feet, he could avoid Agon, as he was faster than the monstrously strong boy, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared.

The cat and mouse chase lasted for a bit, until Agon began to get annoyed and shouted at him with one word, one punch at a time, "Why-can't-I-hit-you-stop-running-away!"

Sena smirked confidently-that-was-completely-to-disguise-that-h e-wanted-to-shit-his-pants-from-fear-right-this-mo ment and said, "No matter how strong you are, what's the point of it if you can't even land a punch?"

* * *

The barrage of punches stopped suddenly as he stood before Sena, catching his breath. This had never happened to him before. It was always a few punches to the face and stomach and it was over. It had never occurred to him that his power would be useless if he wasn't fast enough…but again, his punches _were_ fast. He knew it himself, as his victims usually barely saw the incoming punch before they realized they got hit. So what made this kid different? That's what he wanted to know.

* * *

Was Agon tired? He had stopped attacking abruptly and just stood there, panting. Sena decided that this was the perfect time to escape. He murmured quietly, "Well, I'll take my leave then."

"Wait."

Sena pretended not to hear and continued his way down the street.

"I said wait, dammit!"

Sena walked until he was a safe distance from Agon. He turned and asked in a bored voice, "What is it?"

"How are you so fast?" Agon asked him in sincere curiosity.

Sena blinked in surprise, unable to comprehend the situation.

* * *

"Che. Nevermind." Agon turned away and walked away. "I'll let you off the hook today, but don't go thinking this is gonna happen ever again!"

Agon was actually humming a jaunty tune when he arrived back home. Kongo Unsui greeted him amicably and asked, "You're in an awfully good mood today, did something happen?"

"Is that an awful thing?" Agon chuckled as he climbed upstairs to his room.

His brother considered this for a moment before saying, "It depends on what got you in this good mood." He shook his head and continued, "I bet it's from beating high schoolers again…Agon, you've got to stop that."

"It's just I met someone interesting today…"

* * *

**Well, that's it for today, folks! I'm actually surprised I got something from my first chapter..=P And I know Agon was pretty OOC there, but let's just write that off as his child innocence since he's only fourteen as of so far!**


	3. Chapter 3: One Step Further

**Hello folks! How are we all doing?**

**and I got a review telling me that shinryuuji is in fact a all boys school...so obviously Mamori can't go to that school, lol. So I'll go back to change that, once i figure out how XD Anyway, onwards to the story.**

* * *

Sena could not put a name on this strange relationship he had with Agon—he knew it wasn't exactly friendship, nor did he hate him, or fear him anymore. But he knew something was there.

Ever since the day Sena had met Agon, he would always end up bumping into him at least once or twice a week. Agon, of course, would pick a fight with him, which Sena would respond with graceful dodges and humored the purplette until he got bored of it and let him go. Once in a while, Sena would kick or punch back, which got Agon even more excited and he would end up having to wait even longer for Agon to get bored of the punch-and-avoid game, so he stopped retaliating soon after he began. When Sena bumped into (not literally this time) Agon during his morning runs and was in a rush to make it home so he could get ready for school, he would execute his twist-spin—which he began actively training on to get better—and quickly sprint away before the tall boy could even try chasing him. Recently, however, Sena could see that Agon's punches had been getting faster. On the flip side, Sena's fear of Agon slowly subsided and his reflexes improved too, after dodging so many punches from Agon.

Agon's improvement was evident as Sena ducked to avoid a punch that had nearly hit him—he could even feel the power packed behind it without it even touching him. Sena smiled as he moved to dodge a side kick and said, "You've been getting faster at it now. That last one nearly hit me."

The purple-haired boy smiled widely as he narrowed his eyes behind his shades, "Ya think?"

"Yeah, I do think." Sena gave Agon a bright smile. The punch that was coming his way stopped midway. "Huh? Why'd you stop halfway? What's wrong?" Sena glanced up at the boy in slight concern.

The smile Sena sent Agon had totally disarmed him. Was he getting soft? Wasn't everybody supposed to fear him? Why the hell was Sena smiling at him like they were best friends? Why was he acting like he was _concerned_ for him? Agon's expression turned tempestuous and he glared down at the shorter boy, "What the hell do you think you're doing, acting as if we're friends?" Sena stilled and looked at Agon, expressionless. He threw a punch at him, fully expecting the brunette to dodge it. But he didn't. He flew back and crashed to the ground with a deadening thud from the impact. Agon, who still hadn't recovered from the shock of finally hitting Sena, shouted without thinking, "We _aren't_ friends and don't you _ever_ think we are! You got that?!"

Sena immediately stood back up from that full-on punch and grabbed his school bag that had dropped when he had flown backwards from impact. He brushed himself off and stalked away silently. Agon was speechless as well and could only watch him walk farther and farther away from him, leaving him with a feeling of loss he couldn't comprehend.

* * *

Sena turned his head to the side of the street and spit out some blood that had clotted in his mouth. He let out a hiss between his teeth in irritation and pain. His cheekbone hurt like a bitch. He was glad Agon didn't hit him straight on at his teeth or else at least two of his teeth would have fell victim to his fist. He could have avoided that punch anytime. Anytime but then. Sena had been a little shocked by the boy's words, enough to have reacted late and ended up with a swellings bruise on his face. What did he do to anger Agon? All he was doing was _caring._ Was that bad? Sena scoffed. Probably to Agon.

Maybe it was just him who thought they were more than just acquaintances with a lot of punching involved.

* * *

Two weeks had gone by after Sena's fall out with Agon and he hadn't seen him since. He was mostly glad he hadn't—but a small part of him was worried about the strange and violent boy. He heard from his karate friend again, that Agon had recently gone against some gang members from the Red Light District. It wasn't just that he fought against them; he had actually picked a fight with them, and won.

The sky was just up, and Sena, as usual was running by the creek. He was not enjoying the wind against his face, or the way his arms and legs moved together, or the way the streets were empty and could only hear himself breathe. No, he was troubled, and he didn't want to admit why he was, and who caused it, even though he knew very well himself. _Kongo Agon…_

"Kongo Agon!"

For a second, he thought he himself had said his name aloud subconsciously until it registered to him the voice was low and gruff. He ran up the grass and out of the creek side, looking around to see where the voice had come from. It didn't take him a long time to see a large group of people running into a small alley near the Deimon supermarket. Sena easily guessed that Agon was being chased by that large group, who were probably members of the gang he had fought with, as he was sure they wanted revenge.

"I'm gonna kill you guys all!" A familiar rough voice rang out of the alley.

Sena turned away from the voice and started heading back home, deciding to cut his run short. Agon could deal with his problems on his own. It was just as Agon said, they weren't friends. And if Agon never thought of him as one, he wasn't going to start either.

His teeth grinded together as he clenched his jaw tightly. He suddenly turned around and began sprinting back to where he had come from. What was he doing? Sena grimaced in disgust at himself. How could he leave someone alone to fend against eleven people, whom were gang members to boot! They most definitely had weapons. He prayed none of them had guns. His faced transformed into grim determination as he continued through the streets to run back to the alley where he saw them enter.

* * *

Agon absently stared at the ground as he walked back to his house after he had shouted some words he was beginning to regret at Sena.

"You're Kongo Agon aren't you?"

He looked up at the voice. There was a group of three guys who he didn't recognize, smirking at him as they circled around him, trying to block off his way of escape. They each held a weapon of some sort, and the one who had called him was leaning on a metal bat he held in front of him. He lifted his bat up, pulling back to take a swing at Agon.

"This is for Max!" The man shouted as the bat came swinging down at Agon.

He scowled at him, growling out, "I don't know any Maxes, who the hell's that? And what do you think you're doing with the bat?" Agon easily caught the incoming bat in one hand. "I don't have time for you trash."

"Oh no you don't!" The other man in a black leather jacket advanced quickly and shot a right jab at Agon. The purplette didn't even flinch as it hit and surged forward. He grabbed the man's shoulders and head-butted him with his iron hard forehead. The man screamed as the impact hit.

"Monster!" He nursed his forehead and turned tail, disappearing around the corner.

One of the three men turned to him and gave a harsh, hateful glare that didn't faze Agon a single bit. "We'll be back!" He too, quickly turned and ran away.

"You _will_ pay for Max…" The man with the bat sneered out and followed his friends out of the street.

"Tch…" Agon let out in irritation. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and headed home.

It was when he lay in his bed that night, staring up at the darkness when he realized he was really out of character today.

He had let those pieces of trash go today!

_He_ did!

Kongo Agon did!

He resisted the urge to punch something, knowing he would only be destroying his own belongings. And punching a pillow was just stupid. Agon turned to his side, resting his head on his arm against his pillow. He really was getting soft. This wasn't good. And it was all that kid's fault! An image of Sena flashing that smile suddenly appeared in his mind. He shook his head and growled. _Stop thinking about that shit._ _Sleep!_

* * *

After that, Agon submerged into the darkness. He hung around behind buildings and beat up whoever confronted him or past by him when he felt like it. The last time he had slept somewhere clean was perhaps a week ago? Two weeks? Three weeks, maybe? He lost track of night and day, not that it mattered—he could fight anytime, anywhere.

His ribs gave a stab of pain each breath he took, his fist was throbbing from throwing out so many punches, his untreated shoulder had gotten a stab wound from the gang members he had provoked the other day, his other shoulder was hit by some kind of metal projectile that cracked a bone or two there, and his legs were shaking from exhaustion and lack of food. But none of that mattered. He had won them all. He wasn't weak. He hadn't, and wouldn't let anyone get past him. He, Kongo Agon, would stand above everyone.

Stand above everyone alone.

So he hadn't expected anyone to help him when eleven gang members had ambushed him early morning when he was going to grab a quick snack at Deimon Supermarket.

"Kongo Agon!" The man in a purple blazer and black tie called out to him.

Agon smirked to himself as he led them behind the large building he was just about to enter. He could hear their tittering footsteps following him by his heel.

"I'm gonna kill you guys all!" Agon roared as he pulled his elbow back to jam it at the man's face that was at the front of the pack.

* * *

Sena threw his towel on the railing by the sidewalk and quickly ran into the alley he saw them walk into. He ran past seven men lying unconscious on the ground and five of the others standing huddled around something. Rather, some_one_.

Agon.

Ice gripped his heart as he saw a man holding out a gun at the purpled-haired boy who lay against the wall, in a half conscious state. Sena recovered quickly swerved a powerful kick at the man's temple, immediately knocking him out cold. He then kicked the gun that had dropped from the man's hands away from the other three before they could try to pull anything underhanded.

"Wha-?" The man on his right began. Before he could continue, Sena jammed his foot at the man's balls, causing the man to kneel over and cry out in pain. The other two moved in on Sena, smirking as they revealed to be holding knives which they had previously hidden in their jackets.

Sena cursed under his breath, scowling as he got into defensive position. He wasn't sure if he could get out of this unscathed. Hell, he wasn't sure if he could even defeat two armed grown men. He had only been able to defeat the other two because of the element of surprise.

"What's a little kid like you hanging around with the likes of him? You should just mind your own business and you wouldn't get hurt." One of the three smiled maliciously as he held his knife up. "Now don't go crying out to your mommy after this." The two of them ganged up on him, both holding their knives out at him.

He ducked and did a sweep kick, just as he had done so in his first meeting with Agon, followed by a back-flip kick at the chin of one of his opponents. Considering that they were experienced fighter and muscular grown men, neither of Sena's attacks affected them greatly, except get them a tad bit more annoyed than before.

They laughed and the one Sena had hit on the face scratched his chin and wondered aloud, "Was there a fly on my chin? I thought I felt something itchy there."

Sena narrowed his eyes and chuckled, as if he was humored by something, when in reality, he was shaking in his boots, "What kind knife handling skills was that? Even my gramps can do better than that, and he's never even cut vegetables right, so that's saying something there." He motioned them with his hands, "Come, let's see if you can even touch me with your incompetent skills."

Both men charged and the one clad in white sneered angrily, "Aren't you a mouthy one!"

"I'll show you mouthy!" Sena declared in absolutely fake bravado. He shot a wad of his spit straight at the man's face, shocking both Sena and the man to a stop. Sena recovered first and taking advantage of the man's temporary immobility, he aimed a kick at the back of the man's head, knocking him out.

However, he didn't have time to bask in victory, as he heard the remaining man shouting a war cry and aiming his knife at Sena's side. "Dammit-!" He didn't have time to avoid the sneak attack, but quickly shifted his body slightly so the knife wouldn't hit somewhere vital.

"Good one, Sena." The man was suddenly blown back to the wall and hit the ground with a grunt. "Didn't think you had it in you."

Sena turned his head and smiled. "I didn't think so either."

Agon smiled back and put a head on Sena's head. "Thanks for that."

The shorter boy laughed and knocked the dark skinned boy's hand away playfully, "Don't touch me! You're so dirty! What were you doing the past two weeks? You look like shit."

Agon burst out laughing and responded, "Well, I was here and there-"

"Agon!" Sena caught extended his arms out to catch the falling boy. The boy had exhausted himself and forcibly kept himself to stay awake, but now that the danger was gone, he immediately fell asleep. Sena's faced softened as he stared at the boy in his arms. He took off Agon's sunglasses and murmured softly, "Look, your glasses even broke, idiot."

He put Agon on his back and walked out of the alley and basked in the warm sunlight that shined bright on the streets of Deimon. Sena looked up to see the sun smiling down at the two in the deep blue, cloudless sky. Sena spotted his towel still hanging on the railing and grabbed it as he headed back home. "Ah." He blurted absent mindedly, when a thought occurred to him. _I'm going to be late for school…_

* * *

**Ahh, that totally seemed like a AgonSena story, didn't it...bleh. WELL IT'S NOT. And sorry about making the past so long...but I'm just letting my fingers take me to where the story goes! By the way, the next chapter is still going to be on the past, but I promise the story will finally begin to progress after that. I've already written about half of the fourth chapter.**

**I have a vague idea where the story is going to go though. :)**


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting Shin

**I was thinking whether I should make this story into a love square, with Agon, Shin and Hiruma all aiming for Sena, or just straight on HiruSena. But writing a love square is such a hassle…(Shikamaru moment) Although it would be an interesting experience for me. What do you guys think? Maybe a protective Agon (I'd like to see that! XD) and ShinxHirumaxSena triangle? What should I dooooo? Well, anyways, here's your daily dose of fanfic! (I'm seriously surprised myself I actually updated this three days in a row. Crazy writing spree :D wheeeee!...actually that's not too much since I don't pack too much in each chapter…..**

* * *

When his parents opened their front door to see their son carrying a bloody and beaten boy who was larger than him on his back, it took a moment for them to recover from their shock.

"Uh, Mom? Dad? You guy's okay?"

Both of his parents suddenly launched into super-concerned-parent mode and began blurting out a flurry of questions at the same time. "Who's this? What happened? Where were you? You're going to be late for school!"

"Is that blood I see? He's bleeding! Take him to the hospital! Sena where did you find this boy? Who did this?"

"Wha-"

"Where-"

"Mom! Dad!" Sena shouted over them, still standing outside the door. "Can you please just take us to the hospital?"

His mom stopped in mid-sentence and stuttered out, "R-right. Let me get my car keys…" Her voice faded as she ran back in the house.

His dad gave Sena a stern look. "You better explain this later, Kobayakawa Sena."

Sena smiled uneasily and looked at Agon's arm that hung limply by his side, dripping blood onto the door step. "Let's first get him to the hospital."

* * *

Agon recovered after a few weeks at the hospital. His injuries weren't too severe—they had simply accumulated into something larger. Sena visited him everyday, and during his visits, he became fairly close with the other boy. Sena learned of how Agon ended up the way he was and accepted him the way he was, fully and gladly, although Sena scolded Agon about his violent tendencies, which Agon took in with a scowl in silence. He had been introduced to Agon's twin brother, Unsui, and he was truly shell-shocked to find out a boy like this had a twin like that! They were truly on opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of personalities.

He soon fell into routine of everyday life, meeting up with his new friend at least once a week, not including the times he bumped into him from his jogging. Sena had asked him how he was so strong and Agon answered him with a shrug. "I just beat a whole lotta people up." Sena laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

"That's so unsanitary and unsophisticated!"

"What does hygiene have anything to do with the topic at hand?" Agon chuckled and pointed out.

Sena shrugged. "It just sounded right in there."

* * *

After fighting with the gang members, Sena realized he still wasn't strong enough, knowing full well he had only beaten three of them without getting harmed because of pure dumb luck. So signed up for a fitness program that allowed him to use the gym near his house whenever he wanted, as it was open for 24 hours everyday, if he paid for the fees once a month. His parents complied easily, not seeing any harm in training. This, of course, did not stop him from doing his early morning runs, or his training time at the dojo.

The rest of the school year zoomed by without incident. Mamori had taken her high school examinations and made it in Deimon High, which Sena congratulated her for. Agon, purely for physical reasons, made it into Shinryuuji High, although Sena knew he was actually a very bright person who simply didn't try. Sena, on the other hand, entered his third year of middle school along with all his other friends from his grade.

A few months had passed after the entrance ceremony they held every year in the beginning of the school year uneventfully. It was on a chilly Saturday morning, just after his jogging, when he was headed towards the Deimon Fitness Gym. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the lights in the building were on. Normally, Sena was the first one in the gym during the weekends, and he was the one who turned on the lights for the day. So who was here so early to train besides Sena?

He fished his register card in his pockets and pressed it against the door scanner. The sensor beeped and flashed green, indicating his authentication to enter. He stepped into the large room and turned his head towards the left side of the room, where he heard the rhythmic clanking of weights. There was a boy in a light blue T-shirt, and dark blue sweat pants. Sena blinked in surprise as he thought, _Wait, isn't that Oujo High's PE uniform?_ The one wearing it had spiky, dark blue hair that almost seemed black and a tan, muscular build. His face was contorted in concentrated as he continued to do the bench presses. Sena stood at the front of the gym, watching the Oujo student lifting the weights, impressed by the amount and weight he could lift. Finally, he rested the weights on the stand, and sat up, turning his head toward Sena.

"Um…hello. You're from Oujo aren't you? I can tell from the uniform." Sena began tentatively. "What's your name? I was a bit surprised to see that I wasn't the first one in the gym today."

The boy nodded politely and said, "Hello, my name is Seijuro Shin. Nice to meet you."

"Oh! I'm Sena. Kobayakawa Sena, nice to meet you too." Sena bowed politely, a bit embarrassed to have asked the boy's name without giving his own until now.

"I assume you train here often?" Shin asked as he wiped his sweat with his towel.

Sena smiled and walked towards the bench press. "Yeah, three days a week. The rest of the days I train elsewhere."

Shin looked at him interestedly, "So you train everyday?"

"Well, yeah. Although I do take a few days off so I don't over work my body." Sena replied amicably. He inserted the weights onto the bar and sat down at the edge of the bench press. "What about you?"

Shin nodded, "I, too, train everyday. I will be coming here around the same time everyday on the weekends."

"Ah, I see, the school gym is closed most of the time on weekends, isn't it?"

"Yes. But I want to get stronger, and in order to do so, I need to train." The blunette said in an even tone.

Sena smiled in understanding. "My thoughts exactly." He lay on the board and began to lift his weights. He started out with something easy—about ten kilograms at first, and added another five kilograms after every three sets of twenty. Then he worked from there when he got up to forty kilograms. He didn't want to lift too much, or else it would stunt his growth when he was still growing. They worked in companionable silence, occasionally asking a few questions about each other between the breaks they took.

* * *

Sena, without realizing it, had begun to look forward to meeting Shin at the gym. Even though Shin was a pretty quiet guy that kept to himself, when Sena managed to weasel a smile out of him, it made him feel proud. They gave each other training pointers and compared their training regiments and discussed and developed new training routines that were made suited specifically for themselves. He was pleasantly surprised to find out Shin trained so hard for football. Sena had begun to get curious about the sport, knowing that Agon also had taken a liking to it, stating that it was "a sport where you can beat up people however you like without fouling."

When Sena surfed the internet and watched a short clip about football, he smiled a bit and sweat dropped, completely understanding why Agon would like it. It really was a rough sport. He definitely wouldn't want to be one of the linemen or the quarterback. He would get tackled way too much for his liking. But there must be something about football that entranced Shin to that extent though…his curiosity of football only grew as he pondered upon it.

"Hey Shin…" Sena began somewhat timidly.

The sound of the weight being lifted stopped and Shin looked up at Sena, who stood before him, looking a bit hesitant. "What is it, Sena?"

Sena put his hands together and sat down next to the blunette. "I was wondering if I could visit your school to see your football practice?" His voice lilted up at the end, making it sound like he was asking a question.

"Of course you may. If you wouldn't mind me asking, why are you suddenly interested in football?"

"When I found out both you and Agon played it," Sena paused. "Well, I got curious what kind of sport could interest the two of you."

Shin blinked as put down the weight he was lifting onto the bench they sat on. His face betrayed nothing as he asked, "Agon? You mean Kongo Agon?"

Sena perked up and nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! You know him? Are you two friends?" Then frowned as he another thought came to him, "Oh wait, I had forgotten. Agon has a bad reputation. Pretty really bad huh."

Shin nodded slowly as he said, "That's right, I heard about his gang fights. But he is also very well-known amongst the Japan high school football world. Our coach warned us about him, that he was truly what one could call a 'genius.'" He put his chin in his right palm, leaning towards Sena. "How did someone like you turn up as friends with a guy like him?"

The brunette smiled and waved his hand casually in the air. "Well, a lot of stuff happened." Sena didn't bother elaborating. "More importantly, when is a day I can come by for practice?"

Shin looked a little disappointed at Sena's casual brush off concerning Sena and Agon's friendship as he answered, "Any day is fine. How about we meet by the Deimon bus stop afterschool on Monday? I can pick you up there. It'll be a good warm-up before practice anyway."

Sena smiled brightly, knowing that he planned on jogging there and nodded, putting his hands on top of Shin's. "Great! That sounds good. Thanks!" Shin returned the gesture with a short nod, accompanied with a small smile.

* * *

Sena was in his school uniform, as he had just come straight from school, leaning on the pole that signaled it was the bus stop. "Hm…Shin is running late." The spiky haired boy looked at the sky and asked, "I wonder if something happened?"

Finally, after a good ten minutes of waiting, he heard his name called. "Sena!" Sena cracked an eye open and turned his head slowly to where he heard the voice. He had begun to daze off from waiting for so long. He saw a familiar buff stature running towards him, waving.

Sena immediately rejuvenated and jumped out of his slouched position. As they began jogging, Shin looked at the brunette apologetically, "Sorry, I got lost." Sena gave Shin a slightly puzzled look. He didn't strike Sena to be someone who got lost easily. But hey, don't judge a book by its cover right?

"It's fine. I'm already grateful for you to allow me to watch your practice." Sena scratched his head as he continued, "But, um, maybe I should lead the way…?"

"Huh, why?" Shin asked confusedly.

"…because we're going the wrong direction." Sena pointed towards the opposite direction. "That's the way to Oujo."

A group of crows flew above them, each of them cawing: Aho! Aho! Aho! **(A/N: For those who don't know, it roughly translates to "idiot" in Japanese.)**

"…Oh."

They jogged the rest of the way in silence, with Sena slightly ahead of Shin. When they arrived at the school gates, Sena raised his eyebrows at the size and design of the school. "Wow, Shin, you go to a really impressive school."

Shin nodded silently. He led Sena around the school to the back, where the football field and training areas were located. Sena whistled in amazement when he saw what was going on at the field. There was a large group of students all clad in identical uniforms, running in a perfect, straight line around the tracks, chanting in unison, "Oujo White Knights! Glory on the kingdom! Oujo White Knights!"

"This is merely the warm-up before the real practice." Shin walked down towards the field. "Come, I will introduce you to our coach."

The Coach was a stern looking old man, with countless wrinkles sprinkled all over his face. His arms were crossed tightly in front of his chest as he stared out at the students under his tutelage. He turned when he heard their approaching footsteps. "Oh, Shin, is this the middle school student who was curious about Oujo's football?" He looked at Sena up and down. "He sure is a skinny one for football."

Shin shook his head in response, "Sena doesn't play football, he was simply curious about the sport."

Sena smiled and bowed. "Nice to meet you, my name is Kobayakawa Sena. Shin is correct, I was wondering what kind of sport football was to have Shin completely fall under its spell."

The Coach tilted his head back and laughed in amusement at Sena's words. "A good reason indeed, boy. Nice to meet you too, I'm Gunpei Shoji, you can just call me Coach."

"Please take care of me from now on." Sena dipped his head down politely, and the Coach nodded.

After exchanging quick conversation with Sena, the elder blew his whistle and called the football club members to gather around. A large bulky man with spiky brown hair walked towards them and waved good-naturedly with a large grin plastered on his face. "Oh, who is this? A new student?" He laughed loudly as his large pinky finger entered his nose. "You look like you can be fed a little bit more."

Shin gave Sena an apologetic glance at the large man's actions. "This is Otowara."

Otowara nodded at Sena and said in greeting, "Ossu!"

Then a tall, blonde man walking next to yet another tall man with gray-bluish hair and interesting white rimmed glasses neared the growing group. They introduced themselves as Sakuraba and Takumi. The group asked Sena a few questions about him, which Sena answered cordially. The Coach then shushed them and began to organize the practice into different groups depending on which position the students played.

Sena sat on the bench on the side of the field, watching the Oujo White Knights train. The sport was really intriguing, with so many different kinds of physiques of players on different positions. _The running back seems to be a fun position to play._ He cringed to himself at how much he would be tackled if he did try the position though.

The Coach looked out at the field, standing next to Sena, and asked, "So what do you think?"

"Playing as a team seems to be really fun." Sena answered thoughtfully. "I think I could do as the running back. Coach, what do you think?"

Gunpei Shoji rubbed his chin in consideration. "Well, the running back position needs to have someone who can run fast as well as fend off tackles." He paused. "I'm not going to tell you not to try for the position, but are you sure you're strong enough for it?"

Sena smiled in reply. "I just have to run faster than them, don't I? No matter how strong you are, if you can't reach me, then it won't make a difference."

The Coach laughed loudly. "I like the way you think, Sena. You're absolutely right." Sena then remembered his mother telling him this morning to cook dinner for the family because she would be arriving late from a meeting. Sena left soon after, but not before waving good-bye with Shin and the others.

It was after practice when Shin approached the Coach, frowning slightly. "Did Sena not like football? He left fairly early."

The aging man shook his head, smiling. "I think he was quite interested in our sport. He told me he was considering playing running back."

Shin looked thoughtful. "Sena as a running back huh…"

* * *

**Gah, I got stuck somewhere in the middle here so it didn't go exactly the way I had semi-planned it to go. But same end results anyway! The next chapter will finally start to advance in the canon plot, WOOT! Although, lots of stuff will be changed, of course. I think. Haha, we'll see. Brewing up completely new plots from scratch can be hard, especially if I want them to be actual, GOOD plots. XD That's it for today's update! Hope you liked it!**


	5. Chapter 5: Deimon High

**I'm too lazy to rewatch the episodes or read the summaries of the series, so everything that's supposed to be canon is just based on memory. I'll probably read the summaries of the major matches Deimon has with others, because no way in hell can I write about an entire match from memory that'll make sense without something I can base it off of. If you spot a minor detail that's a bit off from the canon, like getting Sena's classroom wrong (I'm just going to make a random class up), you can tell me and I'll probably change it. By the way, I suck at writing colorful descriptions as you can see in my first paragraph.**

* * *

Months later

Winter had just passed, and spring was awakening. As the wind blew stronger, the cherry blossoms danced in the air gracefully and the trees swayed along with the breeze. The sun embraced the earth warming the once cold air to a comfortable temperature.

A boy stared at the large board posted outside the school building. He was a bit taller than an average boy his age with a slight yet strong build. He mumbled under his breath as he scanned the numbers listed there, "Number twenty-one, number twenty-one, number twenty-one …please be on there." There was an extra large gust of wind that came by, blowing his hair in his eyes. Brushing the hair out of his face with a hand, he continued to scan the board anxiously.

He felt someone grab his arm and shaking it. "Sena! Look!" Mamori exclaimed excitedly, "You made it! Number twenty-one!" His eyes traveled across the board to where Mamori had pointed to. "In class 1-A. Ah, that was my class last year too!" The brunette's shoulders slumped and he ducked his head down as he let out a sigh of relief. It was there. Twenty-one.

He then stood back upright and beamed at Mamori brightly. "We can walk to school together again!" Mamori gave Sena a soft smile and nodded. He looked at the clear blue sky.

The pinkette's face hardened a bit as she launched into mother hen mode, "Sena," she began in a concerned tone, "if someone asks you to run errands for you again, tell them to do rock-paper-scissors, okay?" Sena resisted the urge to roll his eyes and nodded. "Oh! And don't _ever_ talk to this boy named Hiruma Youichi."

Sena perked up at the name, his interest growing about this mystifying boy he had heard about from Agon's rants.

The oblivious pair was unaware of two figures looming behind them. One with the most gravity defying hair, wearing a demonic smile seemed to cackle silently to himself while the other shorter but larger, by far, with an onion-shaped head sported an unsure frown on his face.

Sena opened his mouth, about to question Mamori about Hiruma Youichi when he sensed a vitriolic presence at the last second. Before he knew it, he was unceremoniously being lifted into the air. "Congratulations on your admission! Congratulations on your admission!" The mysterious pair of boys shouted loudly, the taller one especially zestful, throwing him up and catching him while chanting.

"Wha-?" Sena sputtered out, absolutely bewildered about the malevolent intent he had felt before from one of the two boys under him. They put him down and led him to a bench nearby and seated him. The tall boy with the blond hair gave Sena an insanely large grin while opening his cell phone slowly—Sena had no idea how it got into his hands—and handed it back to him

He cackled shrilly and said, "Now, go call your mother to tell her the news of your admission!"

Sena, smiling uneasily, took his new cell phone into his hands. He dubiously looked at his phone, then to the grinning boy. "Is this supposed to be some kind of club recruitment strategy?"

The large bodied brunette put his face in his chubby hands and complained, "Hiruma! Stop it! We can recruit the first years when school actually starts!"

Hiruma? His eyes immediately fell on the blonde boy before him. Sena sized Hiruma up, curiosity sparking after learning his name. _So that's Hiruma Youichi._ He appeared relatively normal, wearing the green Deimon High School uniform with no special physique except for his extra large and sharp set of teeth and ears.

Ignoring his companion, Hiruma a hand on his hip and smirked, "That's right, brat."

"Well, it's not going to work on me, because the only club I plan on joining is the-" Sena was cut off brusquely when a burst of pink flashed before his eyes.

"Hey, Hiruma! Don't bully Sena!" Mamori put her arms out in defense, facing the "bully" and glared intently at him. "Don't you ever even lay a finger on him!"

Hiruma cackled and waved a dismissive hand, "Chill out, woman, I wasn't going to do anything to him."

The angry pinkette's eyes narrowed a fraction and declared loudly, "I don't believe you! Just so you know, if you want to get to Sena, you're going to have to go through me!"

Sena tugged the back of her shirt a bit to catcher her attention. He always felt like the child he was before when he was around her. "Mamori-neechan…it's okay." Mamori turned her head towards Sena, and smiled kindly at him.

"Okay, Sena, let's go home now." She grabbed his hand, leading them out of the school area. "We have to celebrate your acceptance to Deimon!" Sena let himself get dragged away, but not before giving Hiruma a lingering glance of mild curiosity, which the blonde returned.

* * *

A week before all the high school entrance exams started, Sena was in turmoil, not sure whether to try out for Oujou to be with Shin, or Shinryuuji to be with Agon. He didn't want either of them to feel like they meant lesser to him. For either choice, he was definitely going to join the football club. That would not change.

It was Shin who suggested him to just go to neither, and test for the high school nearest his house, Deimon High. The blunette told him that Oujou had played a match with Deimon, and that their football team was very interesting. So Sena sat on that option for a few days, and finally opted to do so. It was decided. He would join neither Agon's nor Shin's school but to Mamori's. It was finally on the day before the examinations when he was hanging with Agon behind the Deimon supermarket, as it held a special meaning to the two of them, when the tan boy asked Sena, "So you're ready for the exam? You don't seem worried about it at all."

Sena shook his head and smiled, "Why should I be? I finally decided on which school I wanted to go to."

Agon stared at Sena, which the brunette responded with a blank look. Agon blinked twice before understanding where Sena was coming from. The purplette let out a bark of laughter and said between breathes, "So…you didn't study at all for the exams?" His laughter turned to strange howls that only Agon could pull off as laughing. Agon finally quieted down and rested his head against the wall, continuing, "I heard Deimon was a pretty good school academically, so the standards are pretty high. Not as high as Shinryuuji obviously though." He threw Sena a look. "Are you sure you don't need to study for it?"

Sena gaped at Agon like a fish, with his arms slumped forward with no response. Agon could literally see Sena crumbling like a stepped on cracker, with his cracker-debris floating away in the wind. He jumped forward and grabbed Sena's soul that had begun to float upwards to the sky. "Hey!" The purplette exclaimed in alarm, stuffing the crying soul back into the owner's body.

"S-s-s-s-" Sena managed to stutter out. "S-study?!" He grabbed his head in his hands in distress and shouted, "I NEED TO STUDY!" Agon merely blinked and the boy had already disappeared from his sights. Agon jogged out of the alley and only saw a long trail of dust clouds on the ground that lead all the way down the street until he could see no farther.

He whistled, impressed, "Sena sure got fast."

* * *

The rest of spring break rolled by lazily, as Sena spent the rest of his days doing next to nothing. Before he knew it, he was preparing for his first day of school in mild nervousness. "I'm leaving now!" Sena shouted behind him into the house.

"Have fun at school!"

Sena shut the door nervously, and looked to see Mamori standing outside his house gates. "Ah, Sena, good timing, I was just about to go get you at your house."

The brunette opened his front gates and greeted his childhood friend amicably. Mamori began to chat enthusiastically to Sena as he gave short nods and replies in return, still worried and nervous at the prospect of entering a new school.

Mamori stopped Sena in front of the walls of the school next to the large sign that said: Deimon High School. "Before we enter, tell me, Sena, do you have a club in mind you want to join?"

"Yes, I do, don't worry about me, Mamori-neechan." Sena said brightly.

"Ah, your tie is crooked." She firmly fixed his tie in place before scolding him, "Don't go looking like this on the first day of school, Sena! Nor any other day after this." Mamori put a hand on his arm and said, "Okay, you can look around for your club in the club fair. I have a meeting with the student council really soon, so take care of yourself." She stepped past the school gates and waved at him, and reminded him loudly as she got farther away. "Remember what I said about the rock-paper-scissor thing!"

Sena waved her good-bye and smiled. "Haha, okay, Mamori-neechan." He, too, stepped into the school gates and immediately the air around him felt different. There were countless people lined up by the side of the path, passing out flyers and shouting that fell to deaf ears as there were too many others yelling aloud at once. The club flyers floating in the air and on the ground almost seemed liked the cherry blossoms on the exam results day. The feeling was incredible. He had barely walked halfway through the crowd of the clubs and was already holding a good two inch stack of flyers that had somehow made it into his arms. He could not turn his head fast enough to see every club, so he could only hope he didn't miss the football club.

When Sena finally walked to the end of the club fair, he frowned in concern. "Did I miss it?" He mumbled to himself. He did not find the football club stand, nor did he see any recruiting flyers for it either.

Sena, and the rest of the crowd jumped in alarm when he heard a great, "YA-HA!" above him. The flyers on the ground began to fly around in a flurry all over the place. He looked up to see a buzzing helicopter flying right above the school, circling near the school gates. Then: "ALL YOU BRATS! JOIN THE AMERICAN FOOTBALL CLUB!" It was that familiar shade of yellow Sena saw that made him smile. _Hiruma Youichi._

"So you were in the football club?" The smile soon turned to a smirk. _This year should be an interesting year._

Sena sat at his desk, tapping his pencil on his notebook absently with his chin in his other hand. The teacher's voice was already boring to him and subconsciously tuned him out. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, causing a few girls around him to sigh contently. Sena merely rolled his eyes in annoyance. Ever since he had cut his hair to a tamer hair style—still spiky, just not as much—the girls had begun to fawn at him, dubbing him as a "bishounen." It was tolerable since he could ignore it but it got downright irritating when his friends started teasing him about it. He would have just let it grow back, but he noticed that his hair was a lot easier to manage when it was kept shorter.

The brunette was interrupted from his musing as the bell rang, indicating class was finally over. Just when he was about to leave the classroom to get his lunch at the cafeteria, he heard a shout coming from the back of the room, causing Sena to turn around.

"Togano, you go get the lunches this time!" A student with duck-like lips and messy dark brown hair that fell to his shoulder exclaimed. He was dramatically pointing at his friend with light brown hair, wearing glasses.

"No, Juumonji, you go get it! When was the last time you even bought lunch?!" The one who was being pointed to at the moment shouted to a tall, built blonde next to him.

"What are you _talking_ about?" The blonde one who was apparently called Juumonji shouted heatedly at him. "Since when did _you _get the lunch?"

Sena could easily guess what the problem here was. Those three must be typical, lazy bullies who needed a gopher to get them lunches, but the class did not have any good targets this year. Sena shuddered to himself, thinking that if he hadn't started training himself, he definitely would have been the target. He called across to them, "Hey, if you'd like, I can get your lunches today if you'd like. I'm going there anyways." They immediately stopped their arguing and turned to him slowly. Sena cocked his head to the side in question when they didn't reply. "Well, what are you doing? Do you want me to do it or not? Bring your lunch money over here."

The three glanced at each other and nodded. They quickly scrambled to their bags and fished out their money. "You better not just take the money without buying anything!"

Another of the three warned, "Or I'll beat you up!"

Sena gave them a spurious smile, "I'd like to see you try."

The group of three stepped forward in a failed attempt to intimidate Sena.

"Huh?!"

"Huuh?!"

"HUUUUUUH?!"

Sena turned away from them, resisting the urge to snicker at their antics, and walked out the classroom. "Don't worry, I won't steal your money."

"Make that a yakisoba bun, will ya?" The blonde asked gruffly.

"Oh, me too."

"Me three!"

"YOU COPYCATS! GET YOUR OWN ORDERS!" Juumonji roared.

And a whole new argument started.  
By the time Sena was back with the food, the chairs and tables had all been flipped over and thrown all over the place. His classmates who had planned on eating inside had all fled the scene early. The moment he stepped in the classroom, the three immediately stopped their scuffling. The duck-lips one said, "Oh, the food's here."

Sena looked around the room with a pained look on his face. "Clean up after yourselves, can't you?"

"Nah, can't be bothered. Pass the food here."

"Not until you put everything back the way it was." Sena held the three yakisoba buns in the air.

"No! Give it _here!_" Juumonji yelled loudly.

Sena walked out of the classroom while sighing, "I guess the three poor boys won't get their lunches then." He closed the door behind him.

He smiled when he heard scattered shouts from the room.

"No!"

"Get back here!"

"Okay, we'll do it!"

* * *

The three boys plus Sena each sat at a desk, eating their lunches in silence. Everything in the classroom was in neat order, much to Sena satisfaction.

"So you guys joining any clubs?" Sena asked as he bit into his sandwich.

The duck-lipped one, which he found his name was Kuroki later, scoffed and replied, "Yeah, the go home club."

"Want to come with me to the football club? I'm stopping by afterschool."

"Huh?!"

"Huuuh?!"

"HUUUUUUH?!"

Sena chuckled in amusement. "Don't you guys ever get tired of doing that?" He looked at each one of them. "So what do you say? It won't take too long."

"You wanna join the football club?"

"A skinny guy like you?"

"Yep. Anything wrong?" Sena looked at them innocently. "Whatever. So yes or no?"

The three of them exchanged a glance. "Well, since we don't have anything to do…"

"…we might as well do something…"

"…so we'll go."

"Are you guys brothers? 'Cause you've totally got the telepathic part down." Sena casually asked as he threw his lunch wrapper to the trash can successfully.

They stood up abruptly and pressed their heads together, shouting in unison, "WE ARE NOT BROTHERS!"

* * *

**Okie dokes, chapter end. Sorry I didn't update during the week, I have school so I don't have any time to work on the story until weekend. I originally planned on posting this chapter yesterday, but I got held up (I had the giantest writers block ever)…well, it's only one day later, not much a difference right? : : I HOPE I can pull off another chapter before Monday (that means a double update!) but I highly doubt it. I still have my homework to do! Also, a thought occurred to me while I was writing this…should I add Juumonji in this? Like a Hiruma, Agon, Shin, Juumonji all chase for Sena. (Damn Sena you so popular =P) But we all know who's gonna get Sena in the end! :D**

**SUZUNA DOES! **

**Only joking =P**


	6. Chapter 6: Spark of Interest

**Hello good fellas. I hope I can finish writing this chapter within 2 dayssss. I realized I never put a disclaimer so..**

**Disclaimer: I dooo noooot own Eyeshield 21. This applies to everysingle chappy I post on this story so this is my ooonly time Im gonna write thisssss….hissss….okay I know I'm not rlly making sense here but I'm in a weird mood. weird. weird. weird. No matter how many times I write it, that word just looks weird. weird. weird. wow it looks german or something for some reason right now. weird. weird. **

**anyway. story startiiiingg**

* * *

Sena and the three "brothers" stood before the football club room that looked identical to the dirty storage room they had walked by on their way here. "Uh, Sena, are you sure we're at the right place?" Kuroki asked.

Sena shrugged in response. "The person who I asked said it was here." They looked at him skeptically. Sena stepped forward towards the room and put a hand on the door handle. "We might as well check since we're here already."

The brunette had barely finished his last words before the door he had his hand on was yanked open forcefully. Sena was immediately bombarded by a large _thing_, which he realized was a person afterward when he heard loud cries coming from the large body above him, who had him pinned on the ground.

"W-w-who…can't b-b-breathe!" Sena sputtered breathlessly. The heavy weight was finally lifted off of him (with the chant of: "sorrysorrysorry!") but immediately faced another crisis when he saw a huge drop of snot dripping dangerous off of the large boy's nose, nearing him by every second. "Wha-wai-wa-wait!" Sena stuttered out. He squeezed his eyes shut and instinctively rolled out of the range of the snot, hitting the arms of the person who had him trapped under, causing the big guy to lose balance and fall on Sena again. _This is not my best day…_Sena internally groaned as he helplessly wiggled under him. His eyebrows knitted in irritation when he heard the triplets laughing their asses off, watching the entire scene unfold before them.

After a moment of struggle, Sena and the other boy finally stood up from the ground. Sena sighed as he brushed off the dirt from his shirt. He looked up to see the other boy's head bowed low in apology. "I'm sooo sorry!" He sniveled deeply, attempting to suck in all his snot. "I just got really excited and started crying because I thought you were a new recruit…but I guess you don't want to anymore now if you had even wanted to in the first place…." His voice trailed off miserably, trudging back to the club room with a dark depressing cloud following him.

"Wait, I never said I didn't want to join."

The boy spun around and teleported in front of Sena, clasping his hands in his at an impossible speed. His eyes had turned into a million sparkles twinkling and he had on the widest toothy smile ever. "REALLY?!" He exclaimed jubilantly.

"…Y-yeah."

He looked past Sena, addressing the other three, "Are you three joining too?!" He was beyond the point of happy and looked to be floating joyously in the air with wings that had magically sprouted on his back.

Before the threesome could say a word, Sena cut in, "Yeah, they want to be linemen." The onion-headed brunette began bawling uncontrollably, hiccupping as he quickly led them in the club room.

"I-I-I've always wanted to have t-t-teammates! T-three more linemen to boot!" He sobbed emotionally as he wiped the tears out of his eyes. He suddenly began bowing again and sheepishly said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Ryokan Kurita, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Sena. Kobayakawa Sena." Then he gestured the other three. "The brother's names are-"

"WE'RE NOT BROTHERS!"

"-Kuroki, Juumonji and Togano." Sena continued without hesitation.

"And we do NOT…"

"…want to join…"

"…the football-" The last part was cut off by a sharp look Sena threw at them.

Kurita smiled obliviously as walked up to what seemed to be a table, but Sena couldn't be sure because it was so cluttered with random things he couldn't even see even a square centimeter of the table's surface. He then proceeded to use his large arms to sweet everything off of it in one go, causing the room to echo with loud bangs and clicks and clatters from all the objects that had previously been on the table and had fell to the floor. Sena merely raised his eyebrows at the messy behavior and asked, "So who are the other members on the football team?"

Kurita listed the current football members, each finger ticking off one at a time. "There's me…" A pause. "…and Hiruma."

Silence fell upon the room.

"…are you, perhaps, forgetting a few other members?" Juumonji questioned dubiously.

Kurita shook his head sadly, "No, I'm sure I didn't miss any members."

Sena frowned. "Then how were you able to play in the Christmas Bowl if you only had two members?"

"We had players from other sports club play. Obviously it was just temporary though." Kurita sighed and looked down. He perked up as he said, "Ah, I was going to go make tea and bring out the cakes. Wait a second." They all grabbed a chair and sat down, watching Kurita pour tea into the tea cups he assembled on the small table. "So, Sena, how do you know about the Christmas Bowl?" He set plates of assorted cakes down.

"Well, it's hard not to know what it is when one of your friends _only_ talks about it." Sena said as he thought of Shin.

"Wait. Wait." Juumonji cut in before the conversation could progress any further. "What's the Christmas Bowl?"

Sena and Kurita explained the high school football tournament to the not-exactly interested triplets. They sat at the club room comfortably eating cakes and sipping tea as they discussed the club. It was evening by the time Sena and the three finally set off for home. The four high school boys walked together, crossing the bridge as the slight spring breeze ruffled their hair. Sena looked out at the mild orange horizon, admiring the suburban city view.

"Why'd you tell the big guy that we were joining the club with you?" Togano asked as they all stopped to look at the setting sun.

"Don't you guys want to try something new?" He took out his new cell phone and stared at the second person on his contacts list, Ryokan Kurita. "Not just hanging around and doing nothing afterschool?"

Juumonji scowled darkly at the Sena's question. "Why'd you help us buy lunch?" The blonde threw out another question.

Sena shrugged. "'Cause I felt like it."

"Why football?"

"Why not?" There was a moment of silence.

"Really, why?" Juumonji pressed on, not accepting Sena's simple reasoning.

"I think you guys will like football." Sena turned to face the three of them fully. His eyes shined brightly, reflected from the sun. His irises seemed to have a beseeching gleam in them as he spoke. "Just try it. Please."

Juumonji stared at Sena in wonder and amazement. Something overwhelming passed over him as his breath was immediately stolen by the boy before him. He was caught in a blazing inferno of passion that burned brightly in those mesmerizing brown eyes. Juumonji kept his expression casual, stuffed his hands in his pockets and managed to let out a seemingly reluctant consent. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Kuroki and Togano looking at him strangely. He knew why. Normally, he would never have _ever_ even considered this kind of thing. He didn't like commitment. No matter to who or what, he just didn't. The blonde knew his brothers, in all but blood (there he admitted it), didn't either. But he couldn't _not_ say yes to Sena. Not when he looked at them like that. He held in a sigh of relief when they nodded, albeit with frowns on their faces.

* * *

Juumonji put a hand on his heart as he thought about his first day at Deimon High. His other hand was behind his head, with the pillow under it. He stared out at the darkness above, not really seeing anything. His mind, for the thousandth time, went back to the smile Sena gave them when they decided to stay in the football club. Sena's determined gleaming eyes were _nothing_ compared to that smile. It was filled with relief, gratitude, and most of all: pure, innocent, happiness. The noisy cars and bustling people below them suddenly seemed to mute themselves; the sky, the ground was no longer there. All he was aware of was that beautiful expression this boy named Kobayakawa Sena made. The overwhelming feeling he had before rushed back to him at that moment, by ten—no, a hundredfold. Juumonji's thoughts wandered, never straying far from the curious boy he met today. _What drove the boy this far for football?_ He closed his eyes as he realized how tired he was. _Maybe football won't be too bad._

* * *

Sena rested an arm on his school bag that was slung over his shoulder. He yawned into his other arm as he walked to Deimon High on the second day of school. He had slept late last night and still woke at dawn for his daily run. After getting ready for school, he had rung the doorbell of the Anezaki household, only to be informed Mamori had gone to school early to attend some student council meeting of some sort. So he was currently leisurely taking his time to get to school. He absently walked through the already busy streets of Deimon's shopping district when he was suddenly alerted by a sharp scream in the air.

"Thief! Thief! The one with the red beanie on roller skates! Someone get him!"

Sena narrowed his eyes as he trained his eyes on the red blur far ahead of him, only getting farther by the second. The thief wasn't hard to spot at all, since the panicked crowd made way for him, obviously wanting to avoid someone sprinting on roller skates. Without delaying another moment, he broke into a sprint, gracefully and agilely maneuvering himself past the crowd of people in his way. He hissed in annoyance. The thief had turned a blind corner. Sena quickly followed suit, and he almost didn't recognize the three high schoolers that were right around the corner he had dashed into. White panic flooded his chest for a moment, knowing it was going to _hurt_ if they crashed at the speed Sena was going at. His mouth formed a hard line, steeling himself, and shouted, "Don't move a muscle!" It didn't look like they were going to move any time soon anyway, since they were frozen shocked. Not losing any velocity, he executed a beautifully perfected twist-spin, as he had on Agon years ago, to the three in front of him.

His eyes traveled up to the roof of a building for less than a second when he thought he heard a high pitched snigger of: "Interesting…" Thinking he had imagined it, Sena dashed single-mindedly toward the thief. He was catching up, fast. Soon enough, he nearly arms length to the man. With an extra powerful boost from his legs, he sprung straight at him, arms extended as far as he could. They both went down in a tumble. Sena's eyes narrowed a fraction as he forcefully grabbed the stolen purse from the man's hands. The red-beanie man grunted in alarm and immediately attempted to take off on a run, only to trip on Sena's leg that he stuck out for him.

"Got you now." Sena smirked.

* * *

The Huh-Huh Brothers had eventually snapped out of their stupor and ran after Sena. They then helped Sena keep the thief at bay as they brought him to the police station. Sena was smiling good-naturedly at the woman who was currently thanking him for returning her purse.

Sena almost timidly brought a hand up as he interrupted her, "Uh, missus, I actually need to go now…I'm going to be late for school."

The lady put a hand to her mouth and made a high pitched "Oh!" She began apologizing profusely, which Sena plastered on another smile and told her it was okay before she could get any further.

"C'mon guys, let's get going!" Sena broke into a run as he dragged the other three with him.

"Chill, we're going to make it, okay?"

"Yes, we are going to make it, but not _in time!"_

"Who cares?"

"I do!"

"Then why'd you have to go and play hero?"

Sena merely made an exasperated noise in reply and continued running.

* * *

A certain spiky haired blonde swung his legs on the edge of the roof he was sitting on, cackling, having witnessed the entire thing.

He had previously been typing away on his laptop on a roof of a random building, absently blowing and popping his bubble gum as he did so. He merely threw a glance at the direction of a sudden scream that had pierced the air below him, not stopping his rapid typing at all. He tsked in irritation when yelps and shouts steadily grew more in number from the area below. Finally deciding he had enough of the noise, he magically brought out an AK-47 from nowhere, ready to shoot off whoever's head that caused the loud racket. He took a step towards the edge, scowling with his rifle in position. That was when he saw him. There was a green blur—in a very familiar shade—that was easily weaving through the large group of people in front of him. His sharp eyes followed his movement, noticing that whoever that was, was a master at this, not wasting a single movement in his run.

His hands tightened on his rifle and his eyes widened as he saw the Deimon High student do a brilliant twist-spin. From his bird's eye view, he had a perfect view of the quick and clean steps the boy took. This boy was truly at the pinnacle of agile. Hiruma did his usual high cackle. "Interesting…"

Somehow the boy below him had heard him—another thing he added to his list of things he knew of the boy: great hearing—and had looked up. He knew the boy didn't spot him, because he had slinked out of sight as he saw the brunette's subtle movements of shifting his head up.

_Touchdown!_ Hiruma thought, smirking as the boy lunged at the man. He finally caught the student's face when he stood up and tripped up the thief. His eyebrows shot up when he realized it was the one he saw at the front of the school before school had started. His eyes gleamed with something that one could closely interpret as mirth. But the man at hand was Hiruma Youichi, so he did not feel such a thing as _mirth, _unless it was at someone else's expense.

He had gone through the trouble of gathering as much data as he could find on the brunette since that day. Most curiously, he could not find much at all, and all traces that had been covered of the boy led him to Kongo Agon. Hiruma had resisted the urge to simply confront the purplette, knowing if Agon would go through such heights to hide information of the boy, he would never voluntarily hand over what he knew of the growingly mysterious boy and would most definitely violently lash out at him, only resulting possible injuries and no new leads.

He, at least, knew the boy's name was Kobayakawa Sena and went to Deimon. Not to mention he had great potential as an athlete. He would be an excellent addition to the Deimon Devil Bats…

* * *

**Whew. Finally over! I so did not finish writing this in 2 days…as if! I basically held off on it until today and wrote it all in one day. =_= Well, there's chapter six! I hope I'm not going to slow am I? 'Cause I know for sure that I'm not going too fast! I always get carried away and add a bunch of extra unnecessary stuff, haha. I hope you guys liked the last part in Hiruma's perspective too :3 He's gonna be fun to write in the point-of-view thinga majiga. I forgot the name of it. 3****rd**** person something. I can only think 3****rd**** person of omniscient, which isn't what I'm doing…is it? Lol. Whatever. I'm also thinking of redoing my 1****st**** chapter because it's just such a piece of crap. Look forward to my next update! And haha, I realized I put a bunch ton of line breaks in here. Bear with me :3**


	7. Chapter 7: And It Begins

**Uhhhh migawd…My english class is starting **_**Macbeth**_**, and I got to around the 5****th**** page and fell asleep. I'm not sure if I can read the entire thing. T_T**

* * *

"Would you believe me if I told you I was chasing after a thief that had stole a woman's purse?"

Laughter rippled across the class.

"No." The teacher threw a thunderous look at his student who had yanked the door open in the middle of his lecture. "Sena, sit down right now."

The boy sighed as he walked up to his seat and sat down. "Didn't think so." After a pause, he added, "If you were wondering, I did catch the thief in the end. Dragged him to the police station too."

Sena got out his notebook and pencil, absently twirling the writing utensil in his hand. He frowned as he thought of the Ha-Ha Brothers' whereabouts. During their rush to get to school, the triplets had suddenly pulled to an abrupt stop, deciding not to go to school at all, claiming it was too much of a hassle. Sena had given them a pained look before running the rest of the way himself.

Class went by uneventfully. It was noon when Sena climbed the steps up to the roof, holding his lunch he had bought at the lunch line a few minutes before. His footsteps that echoed quietly against the stairs came to a stop as he put a hand on the handle of the door. Sena slowly slid open the door and stepped back in surprise when he felt a sudden gust of wind slamming through the door frame from outside. He put an arm before his face, covering his eyes from the jarring wind.

"Kobayakawa…Sena?"

He heard his name through the howling squall. Sena stepped forward, onto the roof, and immediately the howling wind calmed. He looked around the roof to see who had called his name but found the roof to be empty except for him.

"Uh, hello?" Sena called out timidly, not wanting to seem like he was calling out to himself. "Did someone call my name?" He looked up at the roof of the roof, where the protruding building part of the roof was, thinking the one who had called his name was located there.

Sena found himself staring at—and being stared at by—none other than Hiruma Youichi. "Hiruma Youichi?" The blonde boy's lips spread into a smile that made his teeth gleam in the light.

"Kekekekeke…" He cackled quietly. "To think we'd meet here."

Sena began to climb the rungs embedded on the side of the roof building to reach the same elevation as the boy who was currently smirking at him. "How do you know my name?" He demanded.

"I could ask the same thing."

Sena sat crisscrossed in front of the boy and replied, "Mamori-neechan told me about you." _Actually Agon told ne about you first but he doesn't need to know._ "She told me to stay away from you."

Hiruma resisted the urge to throw his head back and laugh, and then said in turn, "I know everybody in the school. Their secrets, their past, everything." _Except for you._ He flashed a lazy smile to the freshmen. "It would be stranger if I _didn't_ know your name."

Sena's eyes tightened as he hid his contempt behind a casual expression, taking a bite into his sandwich. "Then what do you know about me?"

Hiruma waved a hand. "Oh, you know, this and that. Little tidbits here and there." _Next to nothing._

Sena hummed in thought at that.

"You know-"

"Hey brat-"

They both started and stopped at the same time. And then at once:

"I joined the football club."

"Join the football club or else—wait what?"

Pause.

"I joined the football club." Sena repeated slowly.

This time Hiruma did not hold back his bubbling laughter. He flipped onto his back as he laughed, almost to the point of hysteria. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so surprised and flustered. To think that the boy who possessed the golden legs was this intriguing.

Sena watched him, frowning in irritation. He couldn't place it but he had a strange sense of déjà vu…He lifted an eyebrow when he recalled the sense of familiarity. It was just like the time when he had first met Agon. They both went bonkers; laughing at something he couldn't comprehend except for the fact that he was what they were laughing at. Sena shook his head, deciding to ignore Hiruma's laughter. Then: "I have something to ask you."

Hiruma calmed himself and glanced at the boy. "What is it?"

"I'll join the football club under one condition."

"Hmm." Hiruma let out. "I thought you said you already joined my club?"

"Well, I can just retract my club admission." Sena shrugged out easily.

Hiruma put up his trademark smirk. "So, what's the condition?"

"That my identity is concealed." Sena stood and out at the city view from the roof. "My face, my name to be unknown."

"What makes you think you're valuable enough for me to do that?"

Sena raised his eyebrows and shot him a smirk just as smug as Hiruma's. "Are you saying you can't do it?"

Hiruma let out a suppressed chuckle. Oh my. He really did stumble upon someone interesting. "Follow me."

Sena was led into the rundown club room. The lights were off, neither of them bothering to turn it on. The only source of light was the opening of the door, which merely provided a slimmer of luminosity. Sena crossed his arms, leaning against the wall and waited for Hiruma to do whatever the hell he was doing. He could hear shuffling of objects and occasional crashes, so Sena assumed Hiruma was looking for something.

"Aha. Found it." Hiruma remarked in the dark. Sena could hear the blonde walking towards him. Sena put his arms down to his sides when Hiruma came to a stop in front of him.

The brunette yelped in surprise when he felt something pushed onto his head. He brought a hand to his head, only to hear a _thunk_ from his palm hitting something hard. It was a helmet. Hiruma walked across the room and flipped on the lights. The lights cracked and flickered on, finally lighting the dim room. Sena blinked as he saw a world of green. He parted his lips in an "o" shape when understanding dawned him. He was wearing an eyeshield.

Hiruma's cackled filled the air. "From now on, you'll be known as Eyeshield 21!"

* * *

"Hey manager, grab the stuff from there." An annoying offhand voice cut through Sena's thoughts.

Sena grumbled incoherently and walked across the room to pick up a stack of cones Hiruma had pointed to. Hiruma's face turned towards him gleefully, eyes wide with fake curiosity as he took out a revolver out of nowhere. "Did you say something, _manager_? I didn't quite catch that."

Sena internally seethed as he plastered on a smile. "I said absolutely nothing. Let's get to that field now, why don't we?" He opened the door with a hand, holding the cones in the other. He looked back at him. "We don't want to lose precious training time, do we?"

Kurita was in the back with both hands waving at them frantically, trying to break the hostile energy the two of them emitted."Y-yeah! Sena's right! Let's go now!"

The three of them walked out to the field; two of them wearing the Deimon Devil Bats football attire and one of them wearing blue track pants with two white stripes on the side and a plain white shirt that said "manager" in orange text. The manager was currently regretting his decision to take up the position. He could already feel the insane hardships the blonde boy, who must be the son of Satan, was going to make him go through.

He wasn't a manager, really. Sena knew this. The position was simply an excuse to be around the football team without raising questions from others. Yesterday, Hiruma and Sena had agreed that this was the best solution. Now, Sena seriously doubted if Hiruma had done this to avoid suspicion or simply because they needed a manager for the club.

Once they reached the field, Hiruma set the cones into position and pulled out a stopwatch. "We're doing the forty yard dash!" He kicked Kurita's behind and ordered, "You first, fatty." He threw the stopwatch suddenly at Sena, who caught it in time. "Manager, you time."

Sena walked to the other side of the cones, rolling his eyes when he heard Hiruma shout, "Hurry up, brat!"

With a gleeful shout of "Go!" from Hiruma, Kurita shot off, managing a 6.5 second run. Hiruma wore a scowl on his face as he booted Kurita hard on his butt. "TOO SLOW!"

"I'm sorry!"

After the sadistic blonde got bored of kicking Kurita, he walked up to the line and smirked. "It's my turn."

"5.1!" Sena announced as Hiruma ran past him. Hiruma cackled in response, satisfied with his time.

"Okay, Manager, you do it next." Hiruma held his hand out, looking expectantly at Sena. The brunette handed him the stopwatch and stepped up to the gap between the two front cones. His face tightened into an expression of intense concentration, waiting for the cue to go.

* * *

From the determined look Sena had, he didn't need to bring out Cerberus. He smirked as he considered letting Cerberus have some fun with Sena anyways. Giving himself a mental shake of a head, focusing at the task at hand. Speaking of hands, his were strangely clammy, as though he was nervous. His heart, too, was pounding unnecessarily hard. Was he nervous? Is this how it's like being nervous? He held the stopwatch up, and raising a hand, he shouted, "Go!"

His quick beating heart did not slow down a bit—rather it pounded even harder—he watched the brunette take off with a sudden, almost inhuman, burst of speed. Hiruma knew he couldn't blink; else he'd miss Sena running by him at the forty yard mark. He glanced at the time and his eyes widened. Was it going to be _faster_ than the speed of—?

He pushed the button down the second Sena came sprinting by.

"4.2!" As he ecstatically (not that he showed it) announced the time, something occurred to him. The sweaty hands and the beating heart weren't because he was nervous. No, it was definitely not that.

He was _excited._

So, _so_, excited about this boy named Kobayakawa Sena.

* * *

Sena wiped the sweat that beaded off from his forehead. He wished he had brought his towel to school today. He sighed as he took a sip from his water bottle. At least he brought that. Followed Kurita and Hiruma into the club room, he closed the door behind him.

Last night he had asked the Ha-ha Brothers to come to morning practice. They did their little chorus of "Huh-Huuh-Huuuuh?!" and shouted at him for such a stupid request. Apparently it wasn't worth waking up so early in the morning for. Sena frowned at their half-assed attitude but hadn't commented on it. What was even more unsatisfying was that he had to sacrifice his morning runs for this practice instead! It had brought him into snappy mood without anything to clear it. He resolved to wake up even earlier so he could run and have the morning practices.

Now, the morning practice had ended, and after doing countless exercises on the ladder, he was exhausted. He slumped into a chair in club room and spread his legs out in front of him. His eyes were closed and his head faced upwards to the ceiling.

"Hey, Hiruma." Sena called out. He waited for a response from the blonde before he asked, "When's the first game?"

"Tomorrow!" Sena could hear Hiruma shooting out bullets from his AK-47 next to him. "So we're going to recruit more members right now!" He kicked Sena off of his seat, causing him to yelp as he stumbled forward, catching himself before he fell.

"Hey!" Sena yelled out.

"Shut up, brat! Let me finish!" Hiruma held his gun up in a threateningly.

Sena glared daggers at him as he leaned against the table, crossing his arms tightly. "Okay, what is it?"

"We're going to go against the Koigahama Cupids. They're nothing to worry about." Then Hiruma slammed his hand on the board, showing a table with the three's names. "What we need to do right now is to gather more members! Whoever doesn't recruit anyone can play the punishment game with me! YA-HA!" The entire room's atmosphere grew dark as Kurita and Sena saw Hiruma's eyes turn into glowing slits with a devious, sadistic smile to match with. Sena swore he saw red bats flying around the room, screeching evilly as they cackled along with the devil incarnate. The two of them shuddered and hurried out the door, wanting to find someone as quickly as possible.

* * *

_No one_ wanted to help at all. The moment Sena mentioned the football club to _anyone_, they immediately began shaking in fright and stuttering out something along the lines of, "F-f-f-football club?" And then they ran away. Sena scowled in annoyance as he opened the door to the track and field clubroom, not really expecting any confirmations anymore. He was sure it was Hiruma's fault for scaring all of the students away. Sena sighed and shook his head. He was going to try anyway.

* * *

Sena opened to door of the football clubroom to find a very distressed Kurita pacing at an astounding pace for his size. Kurita's head swiveled to him as he walked in. Sena looked at him in concern when Kurita began tearing up and playing with his fingers while biting his lip. "Sena!" He cried out. "What are we going to do?! I couldn't find anyone who was willing to play for the game tomorrow and Hiruma only got two more people! We still need seven more people!"

_Six, if you include me._ Sena corrected in his mind. The brunette walked up to the board where the table was drawn. He tacked up four magnets. After recovering from his shock of the very casual "yes" from Ishimaru, he had set an appointment with the plain boy as to where they would meet to deliver the newspaper. Then Sena went up to the triplets after class, asking them to play on the team, explaining that all they had to do was "push the other team around." Juumonji easily accepted, much to the other two and Sena's surprise. Kuroki and Togano hesitantly gave their consent after, so Sena had managed to get four people.

With the number of people they had, they were still missing two more players. Sena's present frown deepened as he mulled over the pressing problem. He could faintly hear Kurita stressing out in the background. The brunette's face grew determined as he said, "You know what." The large onion headed boy stopped pacing and looked at Sena in question. "I'm going to try one more time. We only need two members now, and I'm _not_ going to allow such a stupid reason make us forfeit the tournament." He put a hand on the door handle, twisting it open. Just as he took a step forward out the door, his nose slammed into something hard. Sena took a quick step back in surprise, rubbing his nose, hoping a bloody nose wouldn't break out later. "Goddarn…that hurt."

He heard a high pitched cackle in front of him. Hiruma stood before him with a wide grin on his face with a hand in the other side of the door knob and the other holding a plastic bag full of sugarless bubblegum. "Goddarn? Who says that kinda lame thing?"

Sena glared up at the blonde, exclaiming, "I do! Now move, I'm going to go find more people to play for tomorrow's game."

Hiruma cocked his head to a side in puzzlement. "Why would you?"

The brunette stepped forward in anger. "What do you mean! Don't you want to play tomorrow?"

"What are you talking about-" Hiruma cut off his sentence abruptly. Then he threw his head back and let out a sharp laugh. "Oh, I forgot to add the rest." He started towards the board only to stop when his arm slammed into Sena's shoulder.

"Ah." Both of them said quite calmly in unison.

Sena blinked a few times, not sure what just happened. Hiruma had accidently bumped into his shoulder and then had felt himself falling. Sena knew he could catch himself before he fell, but before he knew it, he found himself in Hiruma's arms. Both of them froze in that position for a second, taking in the situation. They quickly stepped away from each other and turned away. Kurita, who had been watching the scene unravel, looked at Sena, and then at Hiruma with a thoughtful expression.

The blonde went up to the board, popped his gum, and put up at least six more magnets on the table. He turned to the other two in the room and smirked. "There ya go." The smirk widened into a toothy grin as he aimed his next remark at Sena, "I think that's enough to play—don't you think?"

* * *

Sena rolled in his bed for the thousandth time that night. His mind kept replaying that moment. The falling sensation. A moment of surprise. A soft impact into something warm. Another, _much _more moment of surprise to find himself in Hiruma's arms. He shivered uncontrollably as he recalled the strong yet slender chest he had rested upon. He closed his eyes and sighed. He knew he wasn't going to be getting much sleep tonight.

* * *

Hiruma frowned as stared at his laptop monitor blankly, as he had been doing for a good ten minutes. The blonde blinked and let out a "tch" when he caught himself submerged in his thoughts for the thousandth time that night. He couldn't stop thinking about it. Sena falling into his arms. The urge to wrap his arms around him. _What the hell?_ It was an unexplainable feeling. He shook his head and closed his laptop. He knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with it tonight.

* * *

**AHH I FINISHED FINALLYYYYYYY. Sorry for the late update. I really, really, reallyyy was going to put this up on Sunday, but my brain just decided the die out on me and everything I wrote was absolute crap. Crappier than usual crap, at least. And then I fully planned on posting it on Monday…but..yeah, I'm sure you guys don't want to hear me ramble about this anymore XD**

**I skipped lot's of the specifics of the episodes because personally, I don't want to summarize the anime, and I wouldn't like to read the stuff that's exactly the same in the anime anyway. **

**Please, please, PLEASE tell me if there are any errors in the information of the plot, or just grammer/spelling/punctuation errors. I will go back to change it. I understand the feeling of reading a fanfic with bad grammer/spelling/puncation, and it SUCKS and I don't want this to be one of those kinds of fics. **

**Hope you enjoyed my chapter! (I noticed I'm totally abusing the line break but hey, I don't want you readers to be confused at the change of scene or POV)**

**Also, don't forget to review! :D **


	8. Chapter 8: Home At Last

**Lol. I love how in the previous chapter, I said to tell me if there are any "grammer/spelling/puncation" errors. My story would be absolute shit if I didn't have spell check XD**

**I also found out yesterday how hard it was to run while chewing gum. Maybe it's just me. Using my jaw while running just saps an unnecessarily amount of energy you know? Don't know how Hiruma does it all the time.**

* * *

Sena and his fellow team members followed Hiruma to the football field they were about to play on. Kurita was trailing behind them, lugging an insane amount of luggage that towered over them if they stood next to it. Sena gave a glance at the tired boy behind them. "Leave him be, brat." Hiruma blew a bubble. It made a sharp _smack!_ noise as it popped. "It's his punishment for not recruiting anyone. That fatty."

The brunette bit his lip and stared up at the sky nervously. His first game. He could barely sleep last night because he was so excited about the game—

Hiruma's chest against his back—

He finally was about to experience this sport that enticed both of his close friends, Shin and Agon—

Hiruma's scent—

The teamwork and unity of football—

Hiruma—

_Stop it, Kobayakawa Sena!_ He resisted the urge he hit himself on the head, not wanting others to think he was strange. Maybe he was already. He _did _feel like he was going crazy. Nearly every thought of his was of _him._ Sena shook his head vigorously. _I was so _not_ up all night thinking about that_. _I was just so nervous and excited for the game. _

He wished he was holding one of the boxes Kurita was dragging along. Then he would stop playing with his hands as if he was some weirdo playing with an invisible rubix cube.

When they arrived at the field, Sena heard Hiruma let out an irritated string of curses. Sena glanced at him in mild curiosity before he yelped in alarm when he felt himself being pulled aside, out of the field. "Wha-" He began in confusion.

"Shh. Not until we get out of range." Hiruma interrupted.

Finally Hiruma stopped his pulling when they were behind a bush that was located behind a building. Sena almost face palmed. "There's a fine line between being discreet and plain creepy, you know, Hiruma."

The blonde merely shook his head, smirking. Then his expression cooled down to a serious tone. "Sena, you won't be playing today."

There was a deafening silence as his words sunk down. "WHA-"

A hand was clamped to his mouth before he could finish. Hiruma's scent rushed through his nose. It was a musky and— _Now is not the time for this!_ Sena interrupted himself. What was wrong with him? He yanked the blonde's hand off his face and glared at Hiruma with a level of fury that he knew was about to erupt into something more. He said in a steely voice, "Tell me why. Now."

* * *

Hiruma felt a stir in his insides. He liked this angry Sena. He almost smirked but wisely chose not to anger the fiery brunette even further. Donning a poker face, he replied, "Oujou and Shinryuuji are here."

Hiruma could practically hear a roar of "SO WHAT!" from Sena's eyes, even though the brunette did not speak. He decided to elaborate. "I don't want them to know our ace. Not yet. The Cupids are weak, we can beat them without bringing you out."

Sena scoffed with contempt. "So I'm not playing because a couple other teams are watching us?" Hiruma's heart quickened as he saw Sena's eyes flash furiously. "Screw that!" He hissed lividly. "Hiruma, I'm disappointed in you. I didn't think you were such a coward. Getting scared of a few schools." The brunette stood up as a few twigs on the bushes snapped.

Hiruma cackle-grinned. "That doesn't mean I can't chase them out."

The tight knot of anger that knit in Sena's throat unraveled as he slowly turned around. "What are you planning?"

Minutes later, Deimon was lined up in front of the Cupids in the center of the field. "Set, hut, hut!" Sena heard Hiruma's voice shout out faintly across the field. He sighed as he put his head in his hands. He twitched in surprise when he felt a brief vibrate in his pocket. He flipped open his phone and saw that Agon had texted him. He sighed again as he read it. He quickly tapped a reply.

**Kongo Agon: **y aren't u on the field? wtf u doin over there?!

**Kobayakawa Sena: **hirumas fault. and u and shins fault. goddarn u guys

**Knogo Agon:** I get it w. the blonde fucker but wat does it hav to do w. me and that tight ass?

Sena flipped his phone closed. He ignored the multiple notifications that came from his phone and proceeded to watch the game. He frowned in concern when he saw that the ball had already switched and gone to the Cupid's possession when Deimon hadn't even gotten to the third down. What were they doing? His eyes followed the red jersey that was marked with the number 1. _Hiruma…_

Sena closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Finally, he had had enough. Almost snarling, he whipped out his buzzing phone that hadn't stopped for the past five minutes. His eyes narrowed in annoyance when he saw the flashing screen:

**41 New messages**

Sena wished Agon was here so he could punch him in the face, not that it would do much to the purplette. Scrolling through the messages, he found that ninety-nine percent of them had been from Agon (surprise!) and one from Mamori and Shin.

**Seijuro Shin: **Didn't you say you were number 21? I don't see you on the field.

**Anezaki Mamori:** I'm coming over right now.

Sena blinked. Mamori's coming? His shoulders slumped in resignation when he heard a familiar melodic voice calling out his name.

"Sena! Sena! I was worried about you!"

Great. One more person to make the entire thing a whole lot more complicated.

Sena schooled a friendly face as he turned around and waved at his childhood friend who was currently running towards the bench with her pink hair trailing behind her.

"What are you doing over here?" Sena asked not unkindly.

Mamori smiled at him. "I just had a feeling I should come when you told me there was a match today."

What kind of reason was that?! "…Oh."

She kneeled down before him and put a hand on his forehead in concern. "What's wrong, Sena? Do you have a fever?"

Ignoring his once again vibrating phone, he replied cheerily, "No, Mamori-neechan, I'm fine."

She nodded and sat down beside him. "How's the match?"

Sena's face fell as he answered, "Not good. The ball has been in the Cupid's side since they took it from us on our second down."

When he saw that Mamori was watching the field intently, he quickly turned the screen of his phone on.

**Kongo Agon: **Wat the fuck is that pink chick doing here and STOP IGNORING ME

Pointedly ignoring him, he turned his phone off and transferred his attention back to the game. He felt like stomping his feet on the ground like a child. Today was his day! It was so important, he might as well call it The Day, capitals and all. Why was Hiruma stopping him for such a stupid reason? He wanted to be on the field _right now_.

He jaw clenched tightly as he heard the cheering—mostly girls—of the crowd in the stands for the touchdown the Cupids just scored. The cheering only got louder as the bonus point was successful, making the score 7-0.

Screw this. Sena called for a timeout, which had Hiruma turning his head towards him with a thick hostile air aimed at him. Both Sena and Hiruma glared at each other as they walked towards each other.

They both stomped angrily back into the same bush behind that same building that Sena had now dubbed as "The Bush of Fury" or TBF. They kneeled in TBF in volatile silence, neither of them realizing how stupid they looked.

"Screw the plan, I don't care what you say, I'm going to-"

"_No_," Hiruma interrupted harshly. "I will not allow it."

"Shut_ up!_" The brunette resisted lashing out at the infuriating blonde in white hot rage. "I'm going right now." He abruptly stood and walked away, ignoring the burning sensation on his back that he knew came from the demonic blonde's piercing gaze.

* * *

Hiruma spit out his gum on the ground in anger. Only Sena could get him wound up like this. Opening another gum wrapper and popping it in his mouth, he took a deep breath to calm himself down. He proceeded to leave his little bush sanctuary and began to head back to the field when he saw the ever familiar figure who responded to the name Kobayakawa Sena in the shadows of the building.

The brunette had pulled his T-shirt over his head, throwing it down to the ground as he picked up a red jersey that said "21." Hiruma stood here quietly, admiring the side view of Sena's body. He knew Sena wasn't exactly a pushover, but…wow. He had a lean, tanned body that moved gracefully as his muscles rippled under his skin. He wasn't ripped; no muscles too much defined, but enough to see the shape of them vaguely. He noticed Sena had a scar that started from the right of his naval, trailing down diagonally, with the rest cut out of view from his pants. _Where did he get that kind of scar from? That's a knife wound._ Either way, it did not mar his beautiful body but enhanced it. Unfortunately, his pants he had yet to take off were blocking the view of anything lower.

Snapping out of his thoughts, and holding in a blush; he almost couldn't believe he was thinking of Sena in this way, but the brunette was just so…he was not going to finish that sentence. In his defense, anyone would probably stop and appreciate Sena's body. And Hiruma wasn't attracted to Sena as a person, just the _body. _Just that. _Whoa, wait, where did attraction come from?_

Hiruma's eyes widened as he saw Sena put a hand on his belt. Knowing this was just plain wrong—he wasn't the nicest guy around but he wasn't a peeping tom—he purposely made some noise as he walked towards him. Sena immediately whipped around in alarm, wearing a dark scowl on his face.

When he recognized him, he relaxed and leaned back on the wall of the building. "Oh, it's just you." Sena paused before he looked at Hiruma in slight hesitation. "Did you…see?"

"Yeah. I did." Since Sena did not offer an explanation, he assumed it was a touchy topic. Hiruma walked past him and slapped his back encouragingly. "Get changed quickly. I'll get rid of Oujou's eyes before then."

"What about Shinryuuji?" Sena inquired behind him.

"Well, they didn't bring a recorder. And since you're so impatient, we could never execute the plan to chase the two of them out right now. Destroying the evidence will do." Hiruma turned his head back towards Sena with a smirk.

Sena's surprise became a sweet smile of gratitude. His eyes glittered delightfully as he said warmly, "Thank you, Hiruma."

* * *

"I present you Deimon Devil Bat's ace player: Eyeshield 21!"

A certain purplette grinned manically and sneered out, "About time."

A certain blunette who was fiddling with a now broken tape recorder looked out at the field in renewed interest.

A certain pinkette watched as a figure in red, wearing a helmet with a green eyeshield that reflected off the sun, concealing his face, walked out into the field. She felt a sinking feeling in her chest she couldn't comprehend.

A certain blonde had his hands on his hips as he stood in the middle of the field with the rest of the members, cackling hysterically.

The team formed a circle as Hiruma and Kurita grinned in anticipation to what was coming. Everyone kept shooting curious glances at the mysterious player who seemed to be the reason for the experienced players' glee.

"Okay, you shitty brats. Here's the plan." Hiruma's grin somehow grew even wider than before as he kicked the one dubbed Eyeshield 21. "I pass the ball to you and you run."

Ishimaru raised a timid hand and asked, "What about us?"

Hiruma shouted at him loudly, "You stay outta his way, got it, you little shits?!"

There was a chorus of "Y-yes!"

They all gathered closer, leaning in with their hands on their knees. Hiruma roared deafeningly, "LET'S DESTROY THEM, YA-HA!"

"YA-HA!"

Even for those who didn't exactly know what was going on, with the presence of the new player on the field gave them confidence. Juumonji got into position next to Togano and Kuroki as he gave a thoughtful glance at the boy who stood behind Hiruma, in the running back position. He already had suspicions as to who it was…

"Set, hut, hut, hut!"

Eyeshield 21 ran up to receive the ball from the quarterback. His eyes widened in full concentration as he saw the ball fall into his hands in slow motion…

And then there was air.

He vaguely saw himself swiftly passing people one by one as they attempted to tackle him down. He paid no mind to them. All he was really aware of was the wind, the ground, each step he took and his pounding heart. He did not hear the cheers of his teammates, or the boos and cheers mixed in the crowd, or the announcer narrating Eyeshield 21's amazing debut. It was like he had entered another world—a different dimension from everyone else—yet not. He was detached from this moment yet not. An area of grey. Not white, not black, but grey.

He skidded to a stop as he leapt into the end zone. Sena returned to everybody else's world as he stood upright. This was football.

He knew this was where he was supposed to be. Standing in the end zone with the ball, sweating and panting. This felt right. He was home.

* * *

**Super Short Omake**

He wasn't ripped; no muscles too much defined, but enough to see the shape of them vaguely. He noticed Sena had a tattoo that spelled out something in English on his chest. From his angle, it was difficult to read it completely. Hiruma felt a surge of curiosity burn through him. He was _going_ to read what Sena had tattooed on himself. Finally, Sena shifted his body towards him, making the words fully visible. Hiruma's eyes popped out of his sockets and he felt his jaw fall to the ground. In fancy font, it wrote: "I am a thirsty bitch."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed my chapter. Sorry about the long A/N.**

**Hmm. Did I get any football rules wrong in here? The only knowledge I have of football is from Eyeshield 21 XD **

**Also, I have no idea why Hiruma decided to be so complicated and tell Sena not to play because of Shinryuuji and Oujou. It seriously wasn't my idea. It was the Hiruma in my mind's idea, ask him. I didn't plan it like that…but I think this shows his emotions more. I hope he wasn't too OOC. And that it wasn't too icky and fluffy. I'll reflect on my writing and make the judge of that later because I always write so whimsically…and I can't really tell whether my plot is good or bad until later…XD**

**I have thought about my previous chapter…and it's too fluffy innit? The last part of the chapter….is it?! I want to hear what you guys think!**


	9. Chapter 9: Resolve

The game ended with 24-7, Deimon. Sena scored three more touchdowns easily but never had another chance to score again. Without any kickers on the team, they had not been successful on their attempts for the bonus point. The Cupid's shabby offense and Deimon's inexperienced defense were on a par, only with Hiruma's witty plays keeping the opposing team from scoring again.

A feeling of triumph and joy swept over Sena as he ran towards his teammates when the referee called the game to an end with the Devil Bats' victory. The team gathered near the bench and congratulated each other. Sena's back was slapped, he had people putting their arms on his shoulders as they complimented his running. Yes, this was it. This feeling. Comradeship.

Hiruma later pulled Sena aside for the third time that day and briefly explained to Sena that he had told Mamori that Sena had gone to go buy supplies that they were short on and then ordered him to change back into his clothes.

"Where are you going?"

Sena, who was heading towards TBF (The Bushes of Fury), turned around to see Agon standing behind him with his arms crossed. "So, what do you think of the match?"

"Tch. It was absolute bullshit. What was Hiruma thinking when he kept you off the field for so long?"

Sena shrugged. "Just him being stupid, I guess."

Sena felt the familiar large hand rest upon his head. "Good job, Sena. You did well." Sena looked up at Agon to see him smiling down at him. Sena beamed back up at him, feeling his heart warm with pride and happiness. Then the purplette said, "Not as well as I could have done, of course."

The brunette laughed and kicked Agon in the shin playfully. "Oh, shut up!" He pushed Agon away and continued, "Now get outta here, I'm changing."

Agon threw him a strange look. "Why are you changing out here? You know there are these things called bathrooms right?" Sena stuck out his tongue at him as he grabbed his clothes from the bushes. Agon's tone became most concerned as he asked, "Yo, Sena, you okay? No financial issues or anything at all?"

"Yes, I'm fine, why?" Sena looked at Agon curiously.

Agon broke into laughter, pointing a finger at him as he howled out, "'Cause you're freaking hobo now! No place to put clothes but in the bushes, hah!"

"Seriously, just go away! I'm changing!"

Sena heard his laughter fading as his irritating friend walked further away.

Sena came jogging out towards the bench from the opposite direction of the field carrying a bag of supplies Hiruma had hid in TBF beforehand for Sena to retrieve to seem as if he had actually gone out to buy something.

Mamori turned her head at Sena's return. "What took you so long, Sena? I was beginning to get worried!"

Sena scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly at her. "Sorry, there was a long line." It wasn't hard to act guilty, especially when he really did feel that way. He hated lying to Mamori.

Mamori frowned as she asked, "Sena, are you alright? Is Hiruma pushing you too hard? He forced you to join the football club, didn't he! You would never join it on your own!"

Sena put his hands out, trying to calm Mamori down. "No, I'm fine! Hiruma didn't force me to join, I decided this on my own, really!"

Mamori's face hardened in anger as she turned to look at Hiruma. "I bet he put you up to this too. I'm going to have a talk with him." She stomped over to Hiruma, who was currently barking orders at the flustered team to clean up after themselves. "Hiruma! Come over here for a second."

Hiruma turned towards her with a scowl on his face. "Hah? What do you want, Anezaki?"

"Just come here. It concerns Sena."

The blonde hmph-ed and trudged over to Mamori with his hands in his pocket as he blew a large bubble with his gum. "So what is it about Sena?" He glanced at the brunette was fidgeting anxiously next to the angry pinkette.

"You're being too hard on him! He never wanted to join the football club in the first place." Mamori stated crossly.

Hiruma blinked and raised an eyebrow at her. He glanced at Sena who stepped back behind Mamori so she couldn't see him and shook his head in denial. "Mamori-neechan…" Sena began.

Before he could continue, Mamori grabbed Sena pulled him into a protective embrace. "I won't let you hurt him!" She turned around to walk away from Hiruma. "C'mon Sena, let's go home now. I can brew you some hot chocolate if you'd like." Sena, staring at the ground, kept his feet planted to the ground. Mamori noticed he wasn't following her and questioned, "Sena? What's wrong?"

Sena looked up at his childhood friend and smiled. "I'm sorry, Mamori. I'm going to stay in the football club. I wasn't lying when I said I chose to join it myself."

Mamori blinked, took in what he said, and looked at Sena. Really _looked_ at him for the first time in years. He had grown. He was taller than she was now, albeit only by an inch or two. But the look Sena gave her really showed what she had missed all these years. He had _grown._ When did he start to mature? When did he start to drift away from her…stop depending on her?

She started softly, "Alright then." She then whipped around and glared at Hiruma. "I still don't trust you. I'll join the club as manager from now on."

Hiruma cackled wickedly at the scene and said, "Great! Anezaki takes the manager position, then brat, you can have secretary!"

Sena plastered a smile on his face and gave his consent. He hoped being secretary meant less work for him.

Somehow, he doubted it.

* * *

Sena's phone buzzed in his pocket as he was resting an elbow on the side of the train's window sill, staring at the blur of the city they passed by. He flipped it open to see a text from Shin.

**Seijuuro Shin:** Congrats on your win. You did well. I look forward to playing against you tomorrow.

Sena shot straight up and stared at his phone in horror. "Hiruma!"

The blonde, who typing away on his laptop while playing with his gum glanced up from his monitor and asked, "What is it, brat? Quiet on the train."

Sena gave him a deadpan look, knowing he wasn't any better, considering the fact that he had brought out his guns and shouted threateningly the passengers in the compartment to clear out for them. Why he wasn't in jail already, Sena would never know. "Who are we playing against next?"

Sena felt dread creep up his throat as Hiruma answered, "Oujo White Knights."

* * *

The next morning, they met up at the clubroom with Sena stumbling in loudly.

"Guys! Good news!" Sena stood in front of the door way, grinning at them as he entered the room. He took half a step forward when he took a good look around the room.

Stunned silence.

Pause.

Pause.

Sena recovered and turned around and walked out. "Sorry, wrong room."

"Ah, Sena, come back! You've got the right room!" Kurita stuck his head out the door, calling out to the brunette.

"B-b-but the room…" Sena pointed at the clubroom. "You could walk through the room without tripping over anything!"

"We weren't _that_ messy, were we?" Kurita protested.

"…Yes, you were."

"Fatty, brat, shut up. Get in here already."

"Hiruma!" said the scolding voice of Mamori.

Kurita and Sena looked at each other, shrugged and entered the room. Hiruma was leaning back on the chair with his legs up on the table with Mamori standing behind him, holding a broom.

"Oh, Mamori-neechan, so this is why you weren't at home this morning when I went to your house to pick you up." The clubroom was impeccably clean, with everything in almost impossibly neat order. The floor was swept and spotless, the tables and chairs straight. The walls no longer had unidentifiable stains, sporting a clean white color. The cracks all over were still there, but they were unfixable. Mamori must've switched light bulbs too because it was a lot brighter than before.

"Yeah. I went to school extra early today because being in this room yesterday just made me want to cringe. I was going to get you to help me, but your mom told me you looked so dead tired yesterday, I figured I'd let you sleep more." She smiled at him kindly which he returned with a glad smile.

"Hate to break the moment here," Came a bored voice between them. "But we need to talk about our upcoming match."

Sena perked up, remembering what he had come running here for. He set his bag down and grinned at the occupants in the room. "Right. The good news, I was getting there."

Kurita's eyes sparkled hopefully as he asked, "Oujou were disqualified? Oujou forfeited? You found permanent football members? Please say that Oujou forfeited!"

Sena gave him a small smile as he replied, "Oujou forfeited."

"WHAAAAT?!"

"Not actually though."

"…"

"Well, Kurita-san told me to say that…"

Hiruma gave him an irritated stare. "Enough bullshit. What is it you have to say? If you're just fooling around, then we can move on. After I punish you for wasting my time."

"Hiruma!" Mamori repeated.

Sena put his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay. I really do have something to say." Sitting in a chair next to Hiruma's his grin reappeared. "Shin is banned from playing the next match!" His smile dropped a fraction as he continued, "Wait, that's not a good thing for him...sorry Shin, for being happy that you can't play...but it's a good thing for us…so why can't I be happy about it…oh, but I do want to go against him…" His voice trailed off as his train of thought kept his mouth moving inaudibly.

Hiruma blinked at the spectacle Sena displayed and then proceeded to snap his fingers in front of the engrossed brunette's face, attempting to snap him out of his monologue that no one could hear. Finally having enough, he kicked Sena's shin under the table, producing a yelp of surprise and pain from him.

Sena scratched the back of his head and apologized. "Sorry about that. I do that sometimes…" He turned to Hiruma with a murderous glare on his face. "…that doesn't mean you can kick me!"

Hiruma merely blew a bubble with his gum. It popped. "Where did you get this information from?"

"Shin told me himself. He said that the coach was mad at him for breaking the recording camera during our match with the Cupids."

The blonde crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowed as he asked, "So you and Shin are acquaintances?"

Sena nodded in confirmation. "We're friends."

Kurita and Hiruma looked at him in surprise. Mamori had already known this, since the blunette was introduced to her a year or so ago by her childhood friend. Kurita tilted his head curiously and inquired, "How do you guys know each other?"

"We met at the gym. We train together." Hiruma raised his eyebrows at that, impressed that he could keep up with Shin's infamous training regimens. Sena's built body he saw yesterday made a lot more sense now. Sena shook his head with a small smile. "But we don't do the same training routines."

Hiruma cackled as he shook his head. "You too weak to keep up with him, hm?"

The brunette gave Hiruma a bored look and responded sarcastically, "Ha, ha. Very funny." Sena then continued, "We make our regimens together, depending on our body mass and such. This way is better than just taking Shin's crazy training routines."

Hiruma silently agreed but didn't show it. He had a serious look on his face and with his arms crossed, he said, "Just because Shin isn't playing, doesn't mean Oujou are weak. In fact, this simply gives us a zero point zero zero one percent chance of winning instead of a flat zero percent." Then he stood up and pulled out his revolver, shooting multiple rounds as he shouted, "GET ON THE FIELD! WE'RE TRAINING NOW!"

"Hiruma!" Mamori said reproachfully. "We have a game later today, training on the same day won't help!"

Hiruma turned his face toward her, grinning as his eyes gleamed sadistically as he sneered out, "So?"

"So we should rest until the match!"

He shook his head patronizingly as if Mamori was a child who didn't understand anything. Then he pulled out a bazooka and hovered his finger over the trigger and roared gleefully, "Does it look like I care?!" He cackled as he booted Sena and Kurita out the door, continuing, "Get your asses on the field before I kick 'em there!"

Sena grumbled under his breath, "You just did..."

Hiruma leaned his head towards Sena, grinning as he put a hand behind his ear. "Haaaaah? Did you say something?"

Sena pointedly ignored the blonde and walked towards the field with the training supplies. He pulled out his phone, and said, "Let me go call Juumonji and the other two. They should be training right now too."

Sena resisted the urge to face-palm when he heard the ever familiar sound of a demonic high-pitched cackling from behind. The blonde elaborated, "There's no need. They're already here." The brunette turned to where Hiruma pointed to and saw three figures from afar sprinting towards them at an inhuman speed, leaving a giant trail of dust behind them. Sena glanced at Hiruma in suspicion, knowing he had something to do with the Ha-ha Brothers' sudden eagerness. The blonde held a few photos in his hand, angling it so that the triplets could see it. _Must be blackmail material…_ Sena thought exasperatedly.

As they drew closer, Sena could hear Togano and Kuroki screaming with their arms reaching out to grab the photos. "GIVE IT HERE!"Juumonji roared, terrified at something Sena didn't know, and didn't want to know.

Hiruma pocketed the photos and easily avoided their multiple attempts to snatch it out of his pocket, whistling in fake innocence as he said, "I don't know what you guys are talking about!" His face darkened with a smirk as he ordered, "Now get to training! Before I-"

"Okay, okay! We would love to train!" They interrupted in unison.

His smirk widened. "I knew you would."

Finally, the three noticed Sena had been standing next to Hiruma and greeted him casually. "Yo, Sena."

Sena nodded. "Good to see you three here."

Juumonji looked at him in slight fear. "You didn't see what Hiruma was holding…right?"

Sena smiled and shook his head. "I don't even want to know."

Juumonji sighed in relief and muttered "good" under his breath and then went to his own training. Soon enough, Ishimaru, the basketball members and the others came and quickly began their training of whatever Hiruma told them to do.

"Secretary!" Sena turned to Hiruma in question. "Go get Eyeshield 21!"

Sena flashed him a smile, saluted, causing Hiruma to smirk in return, and then disappeared into the clubroom.

* * *

A few minutes before the practice was over, Eyeshield 21 excused himself, claiming that he was going to go look for Sena, who hadn't come back from buying materials for the game. The brunette discreetly entered the empty clubroom and took off his stuffy helmet he had been wearing, setting it down on the table. His dark hazelnut orbs flickered to the right when he saw a flash at the corner of his eye. It was his cell phone. The screen flashed again, notifying him that he had one new message. Taking off his football gloves, he picked up his phone. Sena's face turned stony in concentration as his grip on the phone tightened. He put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart race in excitement and reread the text he received.

**Seijuuro Shin: **I _will _play against you today. I will make sure of it.

* * *

**Hope you liked it! ^^**

**Remember to review! **


	10. Chapter 10: Deimon vs Oujou

**I don't think I'm capable of writing a descriptive football game…give me a fight, I can write that (I think)…but a football game? well…I'LL TRY MY BEST!**

* * *

"Okay, brats!" Hiruma hollered as they huddled in a circle behind the fifty-yard line. He had his arms crossed, with a serious expression on his face. "We're gonna take this chance for a win while Shin isn't on the field." He motioned them closer as he continued, "Here's the plan. I get the ball and pass it to Eyeshield 21 and you," Hiruma poked a finger at Sena, who was clad in his football uniform like everyone else, except with an eyeshield concealing his face. "Run like there's no tomorrow! The rest of you clear the way for him. Got it?!"

The team shouted a messy chorus of: "Yes!"

Hiruma smirked, putting his hands on his knees as he took a deep breath. "LET'S DESTROY THEM, YA-HA!"

"YA-HA!"

They dispersed and positioned themselves on the field; Sena jogged behind Hiruma, his heart racing with anticipation as he stared out at the opposing team members. He knew that it was still most likely Oujo's win, considering that their team had an assortment of sports players, with only three of the eleven actually playing football seriously while Shin's team had dead serious, talented, devoted players. He took a deep breath, shaking the unnecessary thought out of his head. _Focus. All I need to do is run._

_Run._

"Set, hut, hut!"

Eyeshield 21 ran up to the quarterback, who handed him the ball. "Bring it to the endzone." Hiruma commanded with a grin. The brunette smirked in response and shot forward up to the line. He squirreled in between Juumonji and Kurita, trying to get through the struggling linemen. Sena held the ball as tight as he could, elbowing and pushing through the throng of people.

He stepped forward, feeling his heart free along with his body. He had finally gotten pass them.

"Stop him!" Sena heard someone say.

Too late.

Sena surged forward, immediately breaking into his lightening fast sprint. He seemed to leave a streak of bright green behind him, trailing after him just as quickly. The other players looked like flies being swatted away as Eyeshield 21 easily breezed past them.

Sena could feel himself entering his own dimension once again as he dashed across the field. This time it was a bit different, though. He was acutely aware of _everything._

The furious pace of his heart.

The ball in his hands.

The sweat dripping off his face.

The burning of his muscles.

The cheers from his team.

That line, the goal, the end zone progressively approaching.

He felt a pressure that he hadn't realize he had from before get lifted off his shoulders as the ball he cradled in his arms crossed into the end zone.

Sena heard the sharp chirp of the whistle behind him. "Touchdown!"

* * *

"Coach, please let me play." Shin bowed before the elderly man who—Shin could tell—was growing steadily angrier at the progression of the match. Eyeshield 21 had easily broken through Oujo's iron defense and scored two touchdowns. But then again, their ace player had not been participating in the match thus far, so Oujo was not at their best condition. "I am confident I will be able to stop Eyeshield 21."

The Coach grit his teeth, clenched his fist and said darkly, "Alright. Shin, you're in. Show Deimon what we've got."

He bowed again. "Thank you, Coach." Shin put his gloves on absently, his face hard in deep thought. His dark eyes were trained on a certain figure across the field. _Sena. I'm finally able to face you on the field._

* * *

Sena glanced at Kurita curiously as he heard the large boy cry out suddenly. "What's wrong?"

Kurita put his hand up to his mouth and was about to start chewing his nails before Hiruma came up behind him and gave him a good kick.

"Stop acting like a coward, fatty!" The blonde sneered out.

Kurita flailed his arms out at Hiruma, saying indignantly, "B-but Hiruma! Shin just switched in!"

Sena heart skipped a beat as he heard Kurita's words. He turned around in response to the burning feeling on his back. Shin was walking onto the field—towards him—staring at Sena intently. Sena clenched and unclenched his fist somewhat nervously, staring back at Shin just as intently. _Shin!_

Oujou's atmosphere instantly changed as soon as Shin entered the field with them. Even the expression they wore as they stood on the opposing side of the field was different. They scored a touchdown easily and Deimon failed to get their first down after. Oujou would not loosen their guard even the slightest from here on out; not after the touchdown Sena had run. It didn't take very long for the game to shift to Oujou's side, scoring yet another touchdown with a successful extra point, making the score 14-12.

Deimon Devil Bats stood in a circle, everyone's faces solemn. Hiruma scowled as he said, "We're getting through this one. Fatty, I'm counting on you. Eyeshield 21, go through any cracks you see in the line. Everyone else, do your thing, let's go!"

"Set, hut, hut!"

"FUNNURABA!" A gruff shout came from Kurita as he pushed against Ootawara with all his might, his face screwed tight with concentration.

Sena was handed the ball from Hiruma and immediately scanned the line for any weak points. He found none. But that didn't stop him. In that decisive moment, the brunette charged towards the linemen with all his might with a battle cry. He'd _make_ one. He pushed and he pushed and pushed, holding the ball tight in his arms and twisting his body away from the grasping hands of the other team who were trying to take the ball.

"Kurita-san!" Sena shouted on the top of his lungs. Kurita and Ootawara were currently at a par, and if the onion-head could knock Ootawara off his feet, then Sena could break through.

"Got it, Sena!" Kurita cried out. The muscles on his arms bulged, and the veins on his bulky arms popped out. His eyes were lit with a burning fire of passion, making his emotions apparent as he roared again. "FUNNURABA!"

It was almost like breaking down a glass wall. The moment one part of the glass was broken, the crack spread throughout the barrier and the entire wall crumbled. The effects were immediate.

Sena did not waste a second, tearing down the field with a fast beating heart. He evaded the other Oujou members easily enough, but he felt a white hot excitement build up in him as he knew one big, fast, looming obstacle was to come his way before he reached the end zone.

Shin.

There he was, emitting a terrifying, beast-like—a bear, Sena thought—aura, all directed at him. The bluentte stood erected on the field and broke into a run, charging towards Eyeshield 21. For one moment, Sena almost skidded to a stop, simply from fear of the animal who was pelting down the field for him. For one moment, Sena doubted he could pass Shin. But immediately, he recovered, steeled himself, and sprinted towards the beast.

As they neared each other, Sena heard Shin speak grandly in a low voice. "I didn't expect you to break through our lines of defense, but all the better, so I can stop you myself!"

It was times like this that reminded Sena that Shin was not the polite and proper man he seemed.

Sena grit his teeth and tightened his grip on the ball, bracing himself for conflict.

Shin's heartbeat increased by tenfold as he saw Sena break through the line. He flexed his hands and his mouth tightened in grim satisfaction. As expected, Sena was not going to be stopped by anyone other than himself. The excitement he had held in burst out, electrifying himself as he broke into a sprint, the only thing in his field of vision being the figure with the green eyeshield.

_Sena!_

Brandishing his arms out—his spears—he continued his path on the field. As Sena drew closer, Shin impulsively announced, "I didn't expect you to break through our lines of defense, but all the better, so I can stop you myself!"

Sena agilely avoided the thrust of his left arm but that did not deter him one bit. Shin could tell that Sena thought he had gotten past him. _You thought wrong!_ The second, no millisecond Sena even made the movement of passing Shin, his right arm shot out, hitting Sena square on the ribs hard. The brunette had actually ran farther away from him than he had anticipated, making Shin fall forward as he lunged at Sena. Although the force of his Spear Tackle was lessened from the distance but still sent the brunette straight towards the ground. Shin felt satisfaction rise in him as he stared down on his fallen opponent.

Shin barely noticed the fact that he had fallen on top of Sena, his legs straddling him on the ground with his hands beside the brunette's head. They stared into each other's eyes; both of them full of vigor and an unspoken challenge alight in their irises. He wished he could take off the helmet with the eyeshield so he could see Sena's piercing eyes straight on, but he knew trouble would follow that action. Shin leaned forward, his helmet inches from Sena's and opened his mouth as he whispered out, "Got you."

* * *

Hiruma resisted the urge to stomp his feet like he were throwing a childish tantrum. _What the _fuck _are you doing, brat?!_ Questions raged through his head as he scowled thunderously, glaring at the two figures across the field. Why was Shin on top of Sena? Why were they _still _on top of each other? Why isn't either of them getting up? Fuck, why was Sena allowing this to happen?

What the-?

His jaw almost dropped in shock as he saw Shin inch even closer. Blinding fury immediately replaced shock and he tore off his helmet, throwing it on the ground. He barely registered Kurita behind him trying to calm him down.

"Hiruma! It's okay, we still have a lot of chances to score!"

Chances to score?

"We got through ten yards, we have four downs left!"

Ten yards? Downs?

"We can still win!"

Win?

Then Hiruma realized. He let out a string of vulgar curses that made the people around him cringe. Hiruma ran a hand through his hair in suppressed anger. He couldn't believe it. He had actually _forgotten _he was in a game. Him, who was the one most focused on football and wanted to win the most. Him. Hiruma Youichi. This was a harsh blow to his pride. Now, he seriously doubted if he really _was _committed to the game.

He shook his head to clear it. _No! Of course I am. Just got a bit sidetracked. Calm down. Nothing to get worked up for. Focus on the game. _He took a deep breath. _Focus. _Another deep breath. _Focus._

* * *

Sena was caught—ensnared—by Shin's gaze, both of them seeing nothing else but each other. His heart had skipped a beat when Shin moved in on him and whispered those words, enticing a small shiver from him. If he hadn't had his helmet on, Sena knew he would have felt Shin's warm breath on his ear. A spark of annoyance flickered in him as he registered the bluenette's word. He may have been bested this time, but Sena _knew_ he could and would pass Shin.

Then Sena blinked slowly, the tips of his ears reddening as he realized Shin and his position on the ground and how it must look to everyone else. Sena ruined the moment by cleared his throat deliberately. "Um, Shin?" Sena patted Shin's back, reminding him of where they were. "Could you, perhaps, get off of me now?"

Shin blinked and complied in silence. Sena sighed as he felt the weight be lifted off of him. He stood up next to the bluenette, who was looking at him curiously. Sena cocked his head to the side and asked, "What?"

Shin shook his head and readjusted his gloves. He answered after a pause, "…Nothing."

The game resumed and Oujou easily upped their score against Devil Bat's nonexistent defense to 49-14. Sena was tackled down by the defense line countless times, and whenever he did pass them, Shin was there to stop him. They had not scored a single touchdown since before.

Now, there was only two minutes three seconds on the clock. It was their turn for offense. Hiruma, who had quickly regained his composure after the incident, glared at Eyeshield 21 with gleaming eyes. The team was gathered in a huddle, all of them waiting for Hiruma to say something.

"Don't worry, Hiruma. I'm almost there. I can feel it. Let me try one more time and I know I can pass him." Everyone gave him pained looks, knowing it was nearly impossible to win now. He grit his teeth in frustration. _But I should get past Shin at least once! _Sena clenched his fists to prevent himself from showing the pain he felt from his battered ribs. Shin's Spear Tackles really hurt. But he's had worse. His mind flashed to something of the past. Sena held in a scowl as he felt the scar on his abdomen ache in reminiscence. _Let's not go there._

Hiruma's glare turned into a level, examining gaze. There was a small pause before he closed his eyes and turned his mouth up to a smirk. "Alright. Same thing as before. Let's go!"

"Set, hut, hut, hut!"

Sena glanced at the wrestling linemen for a second and then, with the ball in his hands, turned right, running around them. He immediately was confronted by the other linebacker who dove at him with temerity. Sena swerved gracefully out of his way without stopping, leaping into his sprint that matched the speed of light. He ran straight, near the sidelines passing the forty-yard line…forty-five…fifty-

"Oh shit!" Sena cursed aloud as a kneeling figure suddenly appeared into his line of sight. _Isn't that…Sakuraba-san?!_ The blonde had an arm out, reaching for something in front of him with a face of slight desperation. The handsome man had no time to react when Eyeshield 21 ran at him. He instinctively squeezed his eyes closed with clenched teeth, bracing himself for the impact.

_I am not going to stop! _Sena thought with firm resolve.

It was as if someone had clicked the pause button.

The world slowed as Sena felt himself gather the force needed in his legs to leap forward.

The crowd silenced in that moment.

On his left, he heard someone shout out, "Sakuraba!"

Behind him, he thought he heard a certain blonde holler, "Sena!"

He jumped.

Sena witnessed the entire thing in slow motion. His legs did not touch the crouched man at all. The play button was pressed as his right foot landed back on the ground, resuming the world's movements.

Eyeshield 21 almost cried when he remembered he still needed to pass Shin.

But he would do it.

He knew now that Shin's Spear Tackle had two parts—more if he needed it. The first part was just an ordinary Spear Tackle. And if the first spear failed to get him, then he would use his other hand. And if that failed too, he lunged forward, and with whichever hand had farther range, depending on where the person he was chasing was, he would pierce them there. It was a very simple yet effective strategy. So far, Sena had mostly gotten stopped on the second part, but in the last play, Sena had managed to escape his grasp from his second attempt, only to get hit by the third Spear Tackle.

Sena stared out the field as he charged forward, his eyes narrowing on the steadily approaching Shin.

And then came this moment. His last chance to pass Shin.

"Shin!"

"I will not allow you to pass me!"

Sena's eyes widened as his mind and body went on overdrive, watching every movement of Shin's and maintaining his own speed. The first Spear Tackle was avoided, and then the second…

His heart pumped blood quickly, and its pace seemed to accelerate along with himself as he shot past Shin. Could he get past the third hurdle-?

With a spurt of energy, he leapt forward, cringing as he felt the third Spear Tackle brush him dangerously. Not letting Shin get any closer, he cradled the ball protectively and dashed down the field.

He felt freed and liberated. He had gotten past Shin! Finally!

And then-

Something hooked onto his jersey-

He slowly turned-

There was a crashing dread that spilled itself on Sena's heart.

Shin, his body on the ground, his arm and his finger extended, had caught onto Sena's shirt.

"Fuck!"

The sudden stop caused Sena to fall forwards, each second progressively nearing the ground.

With his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed, he threw the ball up in the air.

He heard the announcer question in shock, "What is Eyeshield 21 planning—?"

Instinctively doing a clean front flip and then a back flip, he landed nicely on his two feet. All of this happened within a few seconds. He looked up, smiling in relief when he saw that the ball was still in the air. Sena ran forward with his arms out, readily accepting the ball back into his arms.

There was no one in his way of the end zone now.

As he stepped over the line, the sharp sound of the referee's whistle and the announcer's excited declaration of "Touchdown!" was drowned out by the erupting cheers in the stands. With a hand holding the ball, he lifted it up in the air, basking in the crowd's applause.

Then he quickly turned his head to the other end of the field, his heart bursting in happiness when he saw his teammates running towards him. He broke in an easy jog with both arms out, embracing them all when they reached him. Amongst the cheering and the yelling of his alias, he heard Hiruma shout over the noise, "Why are you acting as though you won, brat?!"

"I don't know! I feel as though I have!" Sena yelled out in reply.

Eyeshield 21 swiveled his head in surprise when he felt a hand on his helmet. Hiruma gave him a smile as his lips moved mouthed the words that were drowned out by the crowd.

Sena didn't hear it, but he was sure he had said: "Good job."

* * *

**Super Short Omake**

Instinctively doing a clean front flip and then a back flip, he landed nicely on his two feet. All of this happened within a few seconds. He looked up, smiling in relief when he saw that the ball was still in the air. Sena ran forward with his arms out, readily accepting the ball back into his arms. He shouted on the top of his lungs with triumph, "CATCH MAX!"

"Wait, where did that come from?"

* * *

**UGH UGHGUGUGHGUGH UGH GAHHH AHH. Hardest chapter to write. Hardest of the hardest of the HARDESSST.**

**I'm sorry if this chapter was uberly confusing, or if the writing quality was shabbier than usual.**

**Also, I apologize to those who expected an update last week. I was working on replacing my 1st ch with a new one. unfortunately, i did not have the skill to update a new ch at the same time .**

**Hope it was understandable and okay o.o Writing about the game…how am I going to do the future ones?!**

…**don't answer that.**


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